Their story
by kuntakintae
Summary: Six months has passed since Joel had brought Ellie from the Fireflies without her knowledge. Ellie's still in the dark, and Joel fears she would find out one day, and hate him for it. The past can't hide forever. What will happen when Ellie finds out? This is their story. Completed. Adding drabbles.
1. Chapter 1

**Yo guys! I was really a little sad about the ending. Don't get me wrong-i loved the ending. It fir the story greatly. The problem is, my imagination was running in so many directions-like ellie would find out one day, what would their relationship be like, bla bla. So, I'm writing this, a few months after the dning of the game.**

**PLEASE R&R! I'd really appreciate reviews! I want to knw that there are people reading this HAHA. This story is to satisfy my imagination, so for anyone interested in what i think would happen after the ending, read this :)**

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"Today's movie day?_"_ Joel asked Tommy as they walked towards Tommy's house, which was located deep into the town. Tommy nodded as he waved at another family.

"Yea. We're watching a new movie tonight," Tommy replied. "Well, the children are." Joel nodded his head, and they walked in comfortable silence. In the world where you have fought and killed for over twenty years for survival, not having conversations was a norm.

Even after six months, Joel still could not get used to the sight of people walking freely on the streets, with lamplights lighting up the roads, with houses lit up. He had not seen any of that kind of stuff for the past twenty years, and he had never expected to see that kind of thing again. Yet here he was.

It had been six months since he had brought Ellie to the Fireflies. Six months since he had killed every single Firefly in the hospital, and even killed the leader of the Fireflies, Marlene, just so that he could get Ellie out alive. So far, for the past six months, other than occasional bandit attacks, things have been pretty peaceful. No infected has been seen or heard, which was abnormal, but they weren't complaining.

Over the past six months, two new families had joined the town. Tommy had told him that two families in a year was already pretty amazing, but when he heard that Joel had cleared out the bandits that ambush tourists, he immediately understood why.

"Joel…I'll get to the main point." Tommy suddenly said, his tone serious. Joel's guard immediately increased. "I know you're not telling me something. Something happened at the hospital, right?" He asked. Joel stayed silent. Tommy groaned in annoyance.

"Goddamnit Joel, I want to know the truth! What in the fucking world happened at the hospital? I _know_ something happened there. I just know it! The fireflies would not have let Ellie go so easily, and they certainly would not have let you go in just less than a year!" Tommy kept his voice hushed, but the seriousness was there, as well as the anger.

"Tommy, whatever I said was-"

"Don't you fucking lie to me again. You're my brother, Joel. Others may not be able to recognize shit about you, but I know when you're lying and when you're not. In this case, you're goddamn lying!" Joel winced mentally as he heard the bitterness and the accusation in his voice.

Ever since the day he had killed off the fireflies in the hospital, he had been getting nightmares. Sometimes, he would dream of the doctor killing _him. _Sometimes, he would dream of Marlene putting a bullet through his skull.

But the worst nightmare of all was that when he barged into the surgery room, Ellie's skull was split apart, and the doctors were already studying her dissected brain. _That _nightmare was the worst one. The one he dreaded the most.

"The past is the past, Tommy." He simply stated. Tommy sighed angrily and gritted his teeth impatiently.

"Damnit, Joel. Just tell me already! For all I know, you actually killed all of them!" Tommy almost shouted this time around. Joel's body stiffened for a split second, and his facial expression morphed into one of surprise. Immediately realizing his mistake, he corrected his posture, and returned to his neutral face.

But, Tommy had seen it. He had seen how Joel's facial expression changed, had seen how his body stiffened, had seen the guilt that had passed through his eyes.

"You…did you really…" He gaped, his eyes wide as he stared at Joel. Joel shot him a glare.

"Later, in your house," Joel said, quickening his pace. Tommy quickly followed him.

"You're back." Maris stated, looking up from the kitchen table. Joel nodded as Tommy walked forward and gave her a hug.

"What are we having for today?" Tommy asked.

"Quite a few children today, so I prepared the rare treat." Tommy's eyes widened as he started to observe the pots and food all around the kitchen.

"Woah. You even have stew!" Tommy exclaimed, taking in a deep breath of the smell of the boiling stew.

"Now, don't you start eating any of it. Its for dinner, not for you alone." Maria scolded, whacking Tommy's hand lightly as he took a spoon and reached for the stew.

"Fine." He sighed as he placed the spoon back. He then looked back at his silent older brother, and his merry mood dampened.

"Maria, I have something important to discuss with Joel. Can you handle everything for today? Its probably gonna take quite a while." Tommy asked, his tone now deadly serious. Maria glanced at Joel, and then looked back at Tommy and nodded.

"When do you ever help anyway." She muttered. Tommy gave a sheepish grin and scratched the back of his head.

"I'll leave it to you then. C'mon." He signaled for Joel to follow him. The kids were currently sitting in the living room, chatting away about the movies they were about to watch.

"Wait here a moment." Joel said as he walked towards the kids. Tommy stared at Joel, and gave a small smile. He could see Joel's target, which was, of course, a certain brown-haired girl sitting on the sofa, smiling at the younger kids while not saying a word.

"Ellie," Joel said. Ellie looked up at him, her gaze curious. "How's your day been?" He asked, taking a seat beside Ellie.

"Went to help out a little with the crops, tended to some of the cows, went to check out the dam, practically what I do everyday." Eliie shrugged.

"Hmph…I really need to teach you the guitar." He said. Ellie looked at him quizzically.

"So that you can play some music and compose your own ones." Joel explained. Six months ago, when he had mentioned it, Ellie had been so wrapped up in her own thoughts; she didn't even hear what he had said. He doubted that she had even heard him.

"Oh, yea!" Ellie exclaimed, her eyes filled with anticipation. "You never mentioned it before!" She accused, poking his arm.

"I did," Joel grunted, a little miffed with the accusation. "You just didn't pay attention." Ellie frowned.

"When did you?" She asked. Joel was silent for a few seconds, contemplating whether he should bring up about their time at the Salt Lake City.

He knew that she didn't believe him. At least, not entirely. It was true that there were others that were like her, but it was not true that the fireflies didn't need her anymore. Those that were immune were either killed by military or in hiding. The fireflies would not be able to find another one easily.

His greatest fear was that one day, Ellie would find out about what he had did, and would hate him for it. Even worse, she would abandon him and go find the rest of the fireflies.

"Doesn't matter," He said gruffly. "What matters is whether you're interested." Ellie's frown deepened, but was gone in a second when she thought about learning how to play a guitar.

"Of course I want to learn it! You know how much I love music!" She said excitedly, with so much anticipation in her eyes that Joel felt the guilt of what he had done lessen, albeit slightly.

He had often felt guilty, or at least questioned his decision of rescuing her from the fireflies. He knew that she would have given up her life, if she knew she had to.

And that leads to his greatest fear. If she ever found out that he had lied to her about the whole thing, he _knew_ she would not hesitate to find the fireflies and give herself up to them.

"I'll teach you tomorrow then. After that, I'm really gonna have to teach you some swimming. It's a great experience when you're not swimming for your life." Ellie snorted at that.

"Well, seeing that the only times you swim is when you need to get through some obstacle, I'm guessing you've nearly forgotten how good it felt." Joel nodded, agreeing with her. They stayed in silence for a few more minutes, watching the little children playing around the living room. Ellie was, by far, the oldest out of all the children in the town, the oldest other than her being only eight.

"Joel." Tommy's voice broke their gaze on the children.

"Oh, hi Tommy. Didn't know you had reached here." Ellie greeted with a small smile and a wave. Tommy waved back, and then turned his attention back to Joel, his eyes urging him. Joel sighed and stood up, patting Ellie on the back.

"I'll see you later. I have something to talk with Tommy about. You go enjoy yourself with the movies. I'm sure you haven't explored all of them yet." He said. Ellie nodded.

"You better keep to your word about teaching me guitar!" She called as Joel and Tommy walked towards Tommy's bedroom. Joel didn't reply- he didn't need to. Ellie knew that he had heard her, and had acknowledged it.

Once they reached into the bedroom, which was big enough to two king-sized beds, Tommy closed the door behind him and locked it. Joel made his way to a cushioned chair by the desk at the right wall of the room and sat down on it, preparing himself for the talk. Tommy walked towards the bed and sat in front of Joel.

"So," He said, looking straight into Joel's eyes, his steely tone telling Joel that Tommy had already decided that him killing the Fireflies was true. "Tell me. Why did you kill the Fireflies?"


	2. Ellie finds out

**HI PEOPLE! This is the fastest i have ever updated for a story, but since i'm currently crazy over this story, i'll just write it :)**

**I hope you'd like this chapter. Not much, just the 'prologue'. Just for a sneak peek, Joel and Ellie will be having two separate journey for a while, and then some things would happen. Anyway, please review, and if you like it, simply press the follow or favorite story yea? I don't mind criticisms too :) But please let them be reasonable and correctable.**

**Also, there will definitely be no slash. The love between them is purely about father and daughter. I'm sort if I'm insulting anyone here, but thinking of them as romantic makes me a little sick, cuz Joels more than twice Ellie's age. Don't get me wrong, I've read some of your stories and the writing is great! The feeling is great and even the story is great! If it wasn't between Joel and Ellie, i would give some of the stories a 8/10 or 9/10 already! **

**Sorry, just letting it all out cuz i've been a little disturbed by the pairings. PLease take no offense to this...just sharing my opinion.**

**Pls R&R! :)**

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Joel sighed, his face seeming to age ten years in a matter of seconds, the weight of what he had done fully weighing down on his shoulders. It didn't help that his little brother was staring at him with eyes that would scare almost anyone else away.

The bandits in cities and jungles did not scare him. The military in quarantine zones that killed infected people without a second thought did not scare him. Not even the infected and their spores scared him. Even his little brother, who could scare many people with just his gangster-ish looks, could not scare him.

The only thing that scared him was Ellie, which was the best as well as the worst thing that had happened to him for the past twenty years. She was his only weakness, but at the same time, his only happiness too.

He had tried to stop this for very long. Always leaving things behind, saying that it's the past and there is no use thinking about it. Always remaining somewhat aloof, making sure that no matter who his partner was, who his companion was, he would not be too attached to them. That way, he would be in control of his life, and would be able to make the right choice for his survival instead of doing some ridiculous self-sacrificing thing that would get him killed.

Unfortunately, a certain girl suddenly appeared into his life, and that was when he lost control of it. He couldn't understand.

Even when Tess had died, he had not even shed a single tear. Of course, he had felt pain, but he had been careful not to be too attached to Tess, and hence he hadn't felt too much pain. But for Ellie, it was different.

He couldn't stop himself from becoming attached to her. At first, he had hated her, thinking she was just a pain in the neck. Then, his hatred toned down to dislike. Then came the part in the jungle, when he looked at her staring with amazed eyes at the fireflies, his dislike for her faded.

He found out that his hatred, his dislike for her was at first, due to the trouble she was bringing to him. Then, he hated her with all his being when Tess died, putting all the blame on her when it wasn't really her fault at all.

Then, during the journey to the forest to Bill's, he had realized that she was actually quite an innocent girl. She obviously didn't notice, but he had been observing her through the corner of his eyes for the whole journey, seeing every single awkward step she took, every hint of amusement and amazement at the outside world. He realized that she had never experienced the outside world before. That was when he softened up a bit, as even though she was foul-mouthed and rebellious, she was still a innocent, young, fourteen-year-old girl. It reminded him painfully of his daughter in the past, Sarah.

Over the months, after each and every close encounter with death, every single cooperation that had to have to past obstacles, every time they saved each other's asses, he became more and more attached to her. He still managed to act aloof and at least a little mean to her though.

Then, when she had ran away from Tommy's the first time they had been there, he had freaked out entirely. He had rushed all around the forest, fighting and killing off bandits while tracking her. When he had finally found her, he then realized how panicked he had been.

At that very moment, when he stood in the room with her, he found out that he had become attached to her in more than just partners. She was now a friend, and a close friend at that. But, even then, he tried to fight it, making up excuses that Tommy had more knowledge of the fireflies than he did, that she would be safer with Tommy as he didn't even trust himself, but it was to no avail.

In the end, he couldn't abandon her, when he said that she was not his daughter, his heart filled with dread, but also a little happiness, as he realized that slowly, but surely, he was thinking of Ellie as his very own daughter. Hence, he couldn't abandon her, especially when she said that every single person she had cared for had left her or died except him.

Then came the part where they had thought that their journey was finished. They had reached the university, thinking that there would be a whole lot of Fireflies up and ready to get a cure out of her. During this time, the two had bonded even more, so much that he could already talk about his late daughter with her.

But of course, nothing was so easy in this world. The Fireflies had already moved to a faraway place, and bandits attacked them viciously. He got injured in the process, and went into a coma, causing her to fend for herself and him. This lead to that, and they ended up in a burnt out building, with him hugging her tightly and repeating "my baby girl", consoling her about what she had just done. Of course, that was the last straw. He couldn't act like he didn't care anymore, that he didn't love her as a father would to his daughter. He couldn't hold it back any longer.

The next few months were one of the best in his life. They became extremely close, like real father and daughter, so much that he even thought of what he would do with her after everything was over.

So of course, when he heard that Ellie would have to die, his World came crashing down. Everything he had been looking forward to was all non-existent. He had two choices. Whether to allow her to die for humanity, and by doing so sacrificing whatever happiness he would ever have from then on, or save her and keep his happiness, even if there were great risks to it.

He chose the latter.

"Tommy…I'll get straight to the point. They were going to kill her." Joel said with a weary voice. Tommy's eyes widened in slight surprise, but his accusing glare did not diminish even an inch.

"What do you mean "kill" her? She shouldn't need to die." He asked suspiciously.

"She did need to die. They were going to operate her, take out her brain and study it for a vaccine." He said with a dead, cold voice, one that he had been using for the past twenty years before meeting Ellie, and when he is really angry.

Tommy stayed silent for a few moments, studying Joel with emotionless, blank eyes. Joel did the same right back at Tommy. The atmosphere was tense, so tense that if anyone else was there, they would have wondered why the windows in the room hadn't broken yet.

"So what?" Tommy spoke up, deciding that Joel was indeed telling the truth. "So what if she needed to die? Does that give you the right to kill the fireflies, to kill Marlene, to take her away without giving her a choice?" Tommy said each sentence with more and more force, each word felt like a dagger going through Joel's conscience.

"Look, I know that it was wrong, I know I shouldn't have killed them, but I-" he was cut short when they both heard a loud gasp on the other side of the door, followed by a soft, female sob and the sound of some shouts and crashes outside. The two brothers, with the speed of light, stood up and sprinted to the living room, ready for a battle. What they saw instead was a bewildered Maria and a few crying children.

Joel's fear suddenly spiked up as he thought about the thing he was scared of the most. He frantically looked around, trying to even et a glimpse of Ellie, but with each passing second, his heart beat faster, and panic and despair quickly took over. It had came to pass.

"What happened?" Tommy asked urgently. He watched as Joel made his way outside in a hurry, his face openly showing worry and anxiety, as well as fear for the first time. Maria noticed it too, but decided to ignore him.

"Ellie just ran out of the house. She was supposed to deliver some drinks to you two." Maria said. They both heard a strangled choke, which sounded suspiciously like a gasp of despair from Joel, and turned to see him sprint out.

"Joel!" Tommy shouted as he ran after him. Joel was already sprinting across the place, towards where he knew Ellie would go-the stables. Tommy was right behind him, running as fast as he could to keep up with Joel. He couldn't help but be amazed and astonished at the stamina Joel still possessed even though he was already in his mid forties. Then, he thought about what Joel had been doing for the past few years, and his amazement was replaced with sympathy and sadness for Joel. He had never found peace, had always been fighting.

"Where is she?!" Joel asked loudly as they finally reached the stable. The man tending to the horses looked at him fearfully. Even Tommy felt a little intimidated by Joel. Joel, at that very moment, looked like a very angry killer. His eyes shone with malice, and his aura emitted anger and some sort of power.

"Sh-she just took a horse and r-rode away on it. I c-couldn't stop h-her in t-time!" The poor man stuttered. Joel cursed loudly as he heard those words and ran to the stables, jumping onto the nearest horse and rode towards the jungle, where Ellie's tracks lead to.

"Wait, Joel! There's a snow storm brewing! Going out there is suicide!" Tommy shouted after him, but immediately regretted it. What the hell was he thinking? Telling him that going out there was suicide would just spur him on to chase after Ellie.

He mentally cursed himself after a few seconds of quick self-discussion of whether to chase them or not. By then, Joel's figure was nothing but a dark silhouette in the jungle, and quickly fading. Tommy swore under his breath and rode after him.

"Tell Maria I'll be back!" Tommy shouted back at the man as he chased after Joel, into the dark, cold forest with the impending snowstorm coming.


	3. Snowstorm

**Hi guys! I Really appreciate all the reviews and everything! truthfully, i never thought this would become a really successful story, seeing the number of people who actually read fanfic about this. But I THINK its considered quite okay for Last of us category already?...dunno...**

**Anyway, sorry about the really similar part. I mean, i don't really write a venture story, so i am not really good in this. I'm more of the emotions/relationship/friendship kind of writer, i think. So yea...sorry. I still hope you like this story though.**

**PLease READ AND REVIEW, R&R! I REALLY APPRECIATE ALL OF THE REVIEWS...THEY ARE MY MOTIVATION, AND THEY ALSO TELL ME THAT PEOPLE ACTUALLY READ IT! HAHA YOU CAN SHARE YOUR OPINIONS TOO! I LOVE TO TALK ABOUT THEM :)**

**ADIOS AMIGOS! DISFRUTAR(ENJOY!)**

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"No, no, no, no, no, no…" Joel kept repeating under his breath as he rode his horse along the tracks Ellie had made. Thoughts of the horrible things in the jungle kept plaguing his mind. He could hear the rumbling of a storm coming, and remembered what Tommy had shouted when he was riding off into the jungle.

"Shit…no…I have to get to her before it starts…" Joel muttered as he rode on. The surroundings were almost pitch black, very faintly lighted up by the extremely dim moonlight.

Even if the snowstorm wasn't there, the jungle still held many dangerous things. The two biggest dangers were bandits and the infected. So far, the jungle had stayed silent, which meant that there weren't any infected. But, it also meant that something probably scared all the animals away, and he had a damn good guess what did.

"Fucking already?" He shouted out as he heard shouts from behind that was definitely not Tommy's voice. Sure enough, a group of five was hot on his trail, with horses and guns.

"Get him!" He heard one of them shouted. He cursed loudly and sped up, hoping to lose them. It didn't work. They kept on his tail for another five minutes. He guessed that the only reason why they hadn't shot yet was because they were going at a fast speed in the jungle, where one slight slip of control over the horse would send them crashing.

Seeing that he could not lose them, he quickly scanned the area for any other paths that could be travelled on by horse. The path so far had been quite easy as Ellie had already cleared most of the obstacles, but he didn't want to lead them to where Ellie was.

He doubted Ellie had brought any guns out with her, and he himself was unarmed. He mentally berated himself for being so foolish and ill prepared.

A gunshot suddenly rang though the forest. Joel instinctively ducked while trying to control his horse at the same time. Unfortunately, a second bullet was shot while the horse hadn't recovered from its panic yet, causing it to gallop into the woods without any direction in mind. Joel had to hug his whole body against it tightly so as to prevent himself from falling off the horse.

The wind was picking up by then, and the temperature was dropping rapidly. More and more snow flakes were falling from the sky as time went by, and Joel knew that if he didn't find any shelter soon, he would be trapped in the snowstorm, and die from frostbite and what not.

Apparently, the bandits noticed it too, as the sounds of their shouts started to recede, and in the span of a few seconds, all Joel could hear was the rustling of the few remaining leaves on the trees and the wind blowing against him.

His heart started to fill with dread as he realized that he had no idea where the hell he was, and there wasn't anywhere in sight that looked strong enough to shelter him from the wind and snow. The cold was already getting to him. He could feel his body start to shake due to the cold.

He squinted as a row of dark silhouettes came into his view. It was getting harder and harder to see through the snowstorm, and he could feel the horse slowing down rapidly.

"C'mon, just a bit more…" Joel muttered, urging his horse on for the last stretch. He swore loudly as his horse's legs buckled, causing both him and the horse to topple onto the ground. The cold was biting into his skin now, and his whole body was shivering vigorously.

He forced himself to stand, his legs numb from the cold, and continued to trek slowly towards the now slightly recognizable houses.

His vision started to blur as he got closer and closer to the houses. He felt as if his whole body was burning, and it was not the fire type of burning, but the burning you get when the surroundings are way too cold. He felt as if a thousand pricks are poking him everywhere. He panted and gasped as he trudged forward, determined to survive.

He couldn't die there, not yet. He hadn't even seen Ellie yet. He hadn't even apologized. He hadn't even tried to explain himself yet. He couldn't die there.

Finally, after painstakingly moving for two minutes, he finally reached the door. Not bothering to open it properly, he slammed his whole body against it, causing the door to swing open as he fell in. He crawled into the house, his vision darkening, and with the last of his strength, closed the door behind him.

Then, everything went black.

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She knew. She_ knew_ he had lied to her. It was so damn obvious! That very moment when she asked him to swear, he had already been restless, and she had seen the hesitation in his eyes, the stiffening of his body when she asked him to. She knew that he had lied.

And yet, for the past six months, she had been secretly hoping that he had told the truth. She had kept on ignoring the nagging suspicion, and actually succeeded in doing so. Until now.

She could not deny it any longer. She herself heard it. Before this, she had not confirmed it yet, and hence did not feel the full impact of what it felt like if it was really a lie, but now that she knew, she could feel it, and it was so _painful_. What's more, she didn't know that he had actually _killed_ them all, even Marlene! And it was for some fucking unknown reason, something to do with her.

She felt anger boiling inside. Anger at Joel for killing her surrogate mother, for killing the fireflies, for taking her away from them without giving her a choice, for all the selfish deeds that he did. She didn't even know why he killed them. For all she knew, he had killed them all for the sake of killing them.

All she had heard when she had delivered the drinks was "_needed to die? Does that give you the right to kill the fireflies, to kill Marlene, to take her away without giving her a choice?" _from Tommy and _"Look, I know that it was wrong, I know I shouldn't have killed them, but I-"_

That revealed two things. One, Joel had really lied to her about everything, about the fireflies and about the cure. Two, he had killed Marlene.

The thing that she was confused of was why he did it? There had to be a reason. As much as she wanted to put all the blame on Joel, making Joel be the total bad guy and hate him, she knew Joel, and knew that he had changed too much to kill the fireflies in cold blood.

Nevertheless, what he had did was wrong, was selfish. He did not consider about others, about the whole population, he did not even consider her feelings. He had killed everyone, had not given them a choice. Not even her. She did not despise him, but at that very moment, she hated him.

After riding on for about ten minutes, she realized that she had no idea where she was, and that the surroundings was getting colder and colder. She looked up and gasped in surprise when she saw dark clouds.

"Shit. Snowstorm?" She muttered, looking around frantically for a place to hide while urging her horse forward. She swore and scolded herself for being so wrapped up in her thoughts that she did not even notice her surroundings.

The wind was picking up, and she still could not find a suitable place to hide from the storm. For the first time since when she had to take care of Joel by herself about a year ago, she felt lonely, fearful and despair. Just that this time, there was no building in sight for her to stay in, and no Joel, even if he was in coma, to accompany her.

Her horse neighed loudly, and she could tell by the voice that it was exhausted. She could already feel the horses' pace slowing down. That just caused her to panic even more.

"Shit shit…" She repeated loudly as the horse slowed down to a trot. "Damnit!" She cursed and quickly got down from the horse. Just a second later, the horse whinnied and sat down onto the ground, it's legs too weak to support it any longer. Ellie closed her eyes and scratched the horse's neck.

"I'm sorry…" She quickly apologized, and ran deeper into the woods, looking for something, anything, that could shelter her at least a little. She had to leave the horse. It would only slow her down. Tears threatened to fall, but she held them back. It wasn't the time to be weak.

"There!" She said triumphantly, catching sight of a log cabin about thirty meters away. By then, snow was already flying everywhere, hitting her in the face. She covered her face with her arm and moved forward as fast as she could.

"Thank God." She whispered as she staggered into the cabin and shut the door behind him. Her whole body was shivering like a leaf, and she couldn't feel her legs and arms. She betted that if she looked at a mirror, she would see a ghost looking right back at her, due to how pale she must look like right then. When she turned around, she almost screamed and jumped right back out.

It wasn't like she hadn't seen dead bodies before. She had seen plenty, but for the past six months, she hadn't been out on the field much. Hence, she was greatly surprised to see four hanging skeletons, with rotting clothes, most probably people who were bitten and didn't want to turn. The very smell of the cabin made her want to puke. It smelled of rotting food, with nature already overtaking it.

The only good thing about it was that it was significantly warmer than outside. She slid down onto the ground and hugged her knees close to her chest tightly, placing her head in between them for warmth, trying to ignore the four empty holes that used to contain eyes staring at her. She never had to sleep with them in the same room before. It freaked her out.

She tried to fight the longing away, but she couldn't. Her mind kept berating herself for it, but she couldn't help herself. Her heart was longing for company. Specifically, the one she had been with for more than a year and a half. Tears were threatening to fall once again from her eyes, but she held it in. She was _not _going to cry. Not for that son of a bitch.

One thing was for sure though. She wasn't going to get any sleep anytime soon.


	4. Author's note

**HI ALL! Sorry if you thought this was an update.**

**I've noticed that currently, this story has gotten quite a few followers, and one of the most on the category of last of us...um, thanks? HAHA YEA really thanks for fav and following. Glad you're interested. And thanks for reviewing too!**

**I actually love writing this story. I wanted to like update it as soon as possible, but i suddenly came up with this idea of writing a one-shot.**

**It's about Joel's thoughts throughout the journey. It may not be good, but i just wanna write it. It's only half done, so yea...i'll try to finish it up ASAP and post it to occupy you guys for a while while i go back to writing "Their story".**

**I'm planning to name this one-shot "His thoughts." I suck at names, so sorry ^^"**

**Again, sorry for not updating "Their Story"! Hope for you to review "his thoughts" When it comes out :)**

**Ps: There may be some parts that's not accurate, but i don't really wanna watch the whole play through to be so specific, sorry . I don't have that kind of time.**

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**the on-shot is out :) please enjoy it! I'm gonna start writing this now!**


	5. Revelation

**HI GUYS! Sorry for the somewhat long wait! today is the last day of my holiday, so i may or may not be able to update fast. But i certainly will be updating as quickly as i can, yea?**

**By the way, just wanna ask you to check out "his thoughts". I just wanna know whether the amount of vocal, as well as the style of writing was good. Please just review a bit and tell me, yea? I spent quite a lot of effort in it .**

**Anyway, i hope you'd like this chapter! AND NOTICE NOTICE! WHATEVER ABOUT JOEL'S PAST WOULD BE MADE UP BY ME. NOT CANON! IT'LL BE IN THE NEXT CHAPTER...BEAR WITH ME YEA?**

**I personally thought this chapter isn't that good. It was a hard chapter for me to write. Don't know why. Anyway, PLEASE R&R! THANKS FOR ALL THE REVIEWS! :D HAHA**

**~Kuntakintae**

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She hated the snow. She hated winter. It brought back memories-horrid, terrible, frightening memories. Even after a year, the events that had happened that winter still haunted her in her memories and her dreams.

She didn't know how long it had been since she stepped into the log cabin. Ten minutes? An hour? A day? She had lost track of time, so consumed in her own thoughts about Joel and his lies, about the traumatic experience she had gone through the previous year, about everything.

For the last few months she had been with Joel before they reached the fireflies, she had gone quiet. She had been a lot less attentive, less active. It was more like she had been so traumatized, so shocked and abashed at what David had tried to do to her.

She had met people who wanted to kill her; she had encountered people who abandoned her. She wasn't even that disgusted when David said that him and his whole group were cannibals and wanted to have her as food. They all did that for survival.

What really made her rethink about her choice to save humanity was what David had tried to do to her. He had tried to _rape _her, in an extremely violent way no less. It made her wonder whether humanity still needed, no, still deserved saving.

Still, it gave Joel no right to take her away from the fireflies without even asking for her permission. Couldn't he have just waited for her to wake up first? It's not like they were going to die at the fireflies or anything, right? What's more, he had killed Marlene!

But, the strange thing was, whenever she thought about Marlene dying, she felt the sadness, but no tears came out.

Her alertness spiked up to maximum when she heard footsteps outside the log cabin. It was faint, but slowly getting louder with each step. She couldn't see who it was, as the log cabin did not have any windows.

During her trip last winter, she had taught herself how to spot things by listening, just like Joel on many occasions. She still wasn't as good as Joel, and probably will never be as good, but she could hold her own.

She shook her head angrily as thoughts of Joel started to fill her mind, and immediately dispelled them. The very thought of him made her incensed, and it wasn't the time to be angry.

She quietly got to her feet, hastily scanning the room for any objects she could use to fight. She spotted a really rusted knife by the small sink in the log cabin, and hurriedly went to get it before standing in front of the door, preparing to strike when it opens.

She almost hit the person. Keyword- _almost. _Luckily, the person had reflexes that could almost match Joel's, and managed to grab her hand before the knife pierced through his face. That person, who had let out a shout of surprise and took a step back, was none other than Tommy, Joel's younger brother.

"Woah, hey there, please don't try to kill me." He said, the surprise evident on his face as he stared at her, slowly releasing her hand. She quickly retracted her hand and threw it onto the floor.

"Tommy…how?" She asked. She noticed that the snowstorm had stopped. There weren't any strong winds buffeting her body, nor was the temperature freezing cold anymore. Tommy smirked.

"Well, since I live around this are, I need to know where everything is in the area, don't I?" He replied, stepping into the log cabin and closing the door. His eyes caught sight of the four hanging corpse, and he sighed.

"Wanted to clear them out. Never had the chance to." He muttered, walking towards the corpse as he drew out a switchblade from his pocket and proceeded to cut the ropes. Ellie watched silently, thinking that Joel must be near since Tommy was here.

"How did you escape the snowstorm?" Ellie asked curiously.

"I know a few hiding spots," Tommy said, as he threw the last corpse into the snow ten meters away from the log cabin. "There, all done. If I ever want to stay here, I wouldn't want four corpse staring at my back." He said with a small chuckle.

"By the way," He started as he walked back. "Where's the old man?" He asked Ellie. Ellie' head shot up and stared at him, wide-eyed.

"Joel's not with you?" She asked. Tommy seemed to be slightly surprised by her reaction too. He shook his head.

"Haven't seen head or tail of him. I thought he would have reached you by now…" He trailed off, his facial expression morphing into one with seriousness and worry.

"I thought he would have definitely found you by now, that's why I took my time coming here." He murmured. Ellie was getting impatient.

"Tommy, tell me, what happened?" When she heard the worry in her own voice, she was immediately disgusted at herself. How can she still be worried at such a heartless bastard?

He killed all the fireflies, killed the brain surgeons, and killed Humanity's last hope for mankind! He even killed Marlene, her surrogate mother! How could she even be worried for such a man?

"He rushed off immediately after he heard you left. I lost track of him almost instantaneously. He was worried sick. Didn't even care about the snowstorm I was shouting at him about, though I'm guessing that just motivated him more." Tommy sighed.

"Well, fuck him. For all I care, he could be frozen in the snow somewhere, like he should be a year ago." Ellie said harshly, coldly, letting the anger and rage control her tongue. She could feel Tommy's gaze on her, but she ignored it, choosing to glare at the floor beneath her.

"Ellie…Joel's…how do I say this…I know what Joel did was wrong…I want you to know that I didn't mean what I said. I mean, I _was _pretty angry at him for killing Marlene. But-"

"Why are you apologizing?" Ellie cut him off. Tommy raised an eyebrow at her.

"You don't know?" He asked. Ellie shook her head.

"I didn't hear the whole thing. I only heard from the part where you said that he had killed all the fireflies and Marlene. That's all." Her curiosity was rising by the second. Tommy exhaled loudly and groaned.

"That's why you still hate him so much…" He grunted. His words piques Ellie's interest. Tommy then turned and faced Ellie, staring straight into her eyes with his own, serious ones.

"Listen, Ellie. You…had to die." He said with much difficulty, and reluctance. Ellie's body stiffened. What did he mean 'had to die'?

Tommy, seeing the bewilderment in her eyes, decided to explain into more detail. "Your brain had to be cut out for them to find a vaccine, effectively killing you in the process," Tommy sighed again. The next part wasn't going to be easy for her. "And Marlene gave permission to do it. Joel killed the fireflies, and Marlene, so that he could save your life, and also to prevent them from ever hindering you again."

Ellie's eyes were as round as saucers. What did he mean…? She…had to die? …Marlene…gave permission for her to die? Joel had…saved her life? What does that make Joel? What does that make Marlene? Is Marlene the bad guy now? Is Joel the good guy? Her head suddenly felt light as the revelation came. The contradictions…the wrongs…the misinterpretations…it was too much for her at one go.

She staggered towards the sink and threw up. Badly. She could feel one of Tommy's hands rubbing her back while the other held her hair from her face, trying to bring her some comfort. For some reason, it reminded her of Joel's hand, as he had did the very same thing a few months back, when she threw up because of food poisoning. That caused her to think about Joel, which in turn made her throw up a little more.

"Hey, you okay? Just relax, stop thinking for a moment. Get yourself calmed down first before…." Tommy softly muttered, his voice rough yet a little soothing.

Five minutes later, they were sitting on the log cabin floor silently. Ellie was leaning her back against one side of the wall, thinking about what Tommy had just said. Said man was observing her, taking in her expression and trying to guess what she was thinking.

At the same time, he was thinking over every single possibility of where Joel had gone. Joel didn't know the woods, and would have probably got lost.

One possibility was that Joel hadn't managed to find a safe spot, and was what Ellie had said earlier-frozen in the snow somewhere.

Another possibility was that he had encountered hunters, and had led them away from the track Ellie had been at. A few hours ago, when he had been tracking Joel, he had reached a junction where there were trails. One looked like a group had made it, while the other looked like one person had made it.

Of course, he took the single person. After all, Ellie and Joel were by themselves, so there was a higher chance that that trail would lead him to them.

It _had_ led him to Ellie, but Joel was nowhere to be found. That meant that the latter could be true. Joel had encountered the hunters that roamed the forest, and led them away from Ellie's tracks.

Ellie's thoughts, however, were much more wild and disturbed than his.

Why had Marlene given the permission without asking her first? Did she care so less about her? Did she see her only as something that could be sacrificed without its consent?

Yes, Marlene hadn't been there a lot for her. Sure, she took care of Ellie from time to time, but most of the time, Ellie had been staying at the military school. Still, she had felt that Marlene was a damn good parent, like her own mother. She didn't remember much about her parents, so to her, Marlene was the only parent she ever knew.

Then came Joel. At first, he was a son of a bitch. But, later on, she began to see his other side- the parental side.

Now, when she thinks about it, Marlene had never really been a really good mother. She did spend some time talking to her about school and stuff, and Ellie knew that Marlene had cared for her quite a lot, but there always seemed to be something missing. Something that made Marlene feel sort of like a parent, but not like a real parent.

Only now was she starting to realize that perhaps, Marlene had only been taking care of her because of an obligation she had felt to her mum. Once, Marlene had mentioned that she was taking care of her as she had promised Anna-Ellie's mother- to take care of Ellie.

Whilst Marlene had taken care of her only because it was a promise, Joel had taken care of her in…a different way.

At first, it was because of merchandise, and than his obligation to Tess. But somewhere along the journey, he had begun to change. She couldn't find out what had changed, no matter how much she racked her brain.

Still, neither of them had given her a choice. Marlene had let her die, and Joel had saved her. Neither of them had asked her for her opinion. They just carried on with whatever they wanted. They never took her opinions into consideration.

That's why she couldn't forgive Joel, for even though he had saved her life, he had done it for himself. At least, to her, he had done it for himself.

That alone brought another revelation-that Joel cared for her enough to fight through and entire building of enemies just to rescue her, even though his objective was already complete.

"Still doesn't mean he had the right…" She muttered under the breath. Hurt and sadness was blossoming in her chest. Hurt that both of them had not considered her feelings, and sadness that Joel had killed her surrogate mother.

There as anger too, but no longer was there any form of hatred that was directed towards Joel. Okay, maybe a little, but it had significantly dwindled. Now that she knew why…

She heard Tommy sigh, and she looked up to see him looking down at her with a look of…pity, and understanding too. Understanding?

She then noticed that the pity and understanding was not directed to her, but to someone else, and she would bet all her money, if she had any, that it was towards Joel.

"C'mon," he said, signaling her to follow with his hand as he opened the log cabin's door. "My horse is at the tracks. I'm…beginning to see why Joel did what he did…damn, we've been pretty unappreciative people, huh…" He said the last part softly, as though he was talking to someone that was long gone.

"What'cha waitin' for? Time to get going. I wanna get back to the town as fast as we can. We can then plan where to find Joel, and on the way, I'll tell you a thing or two about Joel, and his past. Maybe…maybe that's why he did all those things. I've never tried to understand him, huh…" he shook his head, and waved his hand, signalling for her to follow.

His words struck a chord inside her. She realized that apart from Sarah, she didn't know much about anything else about Joel's past. Even when it came to Sarah, all she knew was that he had lost a daughter. Nothing else.

So, with curiosity and interest, she followed Tommy, eager yet a little reluctant to hear what Tommy was about to tell her.


	6. Joel's past

**HI GUYS! LOOK HERE, BECAUSE THIS IS IMPORTANT, SO I'M GONNA PUT ALL IN CAPS.**

**THIS CHAPTER, AND EVERYTHING WRITTEN ABOUT JOEL'S PAST, IS NOT ORIGINAL EXCEPT FOR SARAH DYING. I MADE UP THIS STORY, AND I HOPE ITS OKAY TO YOU. **

**THE LAST PART MAY BE A BIT OOC, I DON'T REALLY KNOW, BUT PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEEEASSSEE REVIEW AND TELL ME ABOUT YOUR OPINIONS AND THOUGHTS. I NEED THEM, SO PLEASE! **

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"Ellie, what I'm about to tell you…I'd suggest you never mention it to anyone else." Tommy said as he pulled himself up his horse. Speaking about horses, Ellie hadn't seen hers anywhere. She should be able to see it- after all, she left it not far away. She squinted as she tried to find the spot where she had abandoned the horse.

She winced as she saw the corpse lying where she had left it. It didn't have any sign of rotting at all, but it was obviously dead. The fur was dropping off, the body was in an impossible angle, and the body was as still as a statue. Tommy noticed her staring at something, and followed her gaze till he saw the dead horse lying a few meters away.

"I shouldn't have brought it along with me…it was my fault it was killed." Ellie muttered, pain blooming in her chest, as well as guilt. Tommy could guess what she was thinking, and sighed.

"It wasn't your fault. You were in shock, and that caused you to do things that you would never have done if you were thinking straight." He tried to console her, but to no avail. She stayed quiet, looking at the corpse with eyes filled with pain and guilt, of what she had done to it. The pain and guilt in her eyes looked so intense, the only other person Tommy had ever seen that kind of eyes were Joel's, and that was saying a lot.

"C'mon, we need to go back to town. Perhaps Joel's already back there waiting." Tommy encouraged. Ellie's reaction was instantaneous. Her body went as stiff as a tree trunk, her face morphed into one with anger and rage. But, he could tell that compared to just a few moments ago, this level of anger and rage was way better.

"You said that we've been unappreciative of Joel…I don't even believe it for one second," Ellie said skeptically. "As far as I know, he's the one treating me as though I'm someone he owns. Not to mention that he treats people in your town like they don't even exist." Tommy frowned at her tone, but understood her point of view.

But, he understood Joel's too. Sad to say, out of everyone, it was probably him that knew Joel the most, and since he and Joel had gone for a couple of adventures together before, he could guess why Joel had done what he did.

He had also realized how much he had disregarded Joel's efforts, and so had Ellie, and many others. He had even told Joel that those years when Joel had taken care of the both of them were not worth it.

What made him feel worse was that Joel had never lamented over how much appreciation, nor how unfair life had been to him.

"Look, Ellie," He started as Ellie pulled herself up onto his horse and held the sides of his jacket. "How do I start…" He spoke to himself as the horse started to move.

"Anywhere you want." Ellie said coldly. On the exterior, she looked like she was really pissed, and ready to fucking kill anyone who annoyed her at that moment. But on the inside, she was really curious about Joel's past.

But, there was this…reluctance inside her. It was as though her heart knew that whatever she was about to hear would make her forgive him, and it didn't want her to hear it. It wanted to continue to hate Joel.

But did she really hate Joel? Sure, she had despised him when she heard him say that he had killed Marlene and the fireflies. She had been disgusted at his atrocious actions, and how he could even have the nerve to lie to her about it. She had thought that he had done a really selfish act, without any regard to any others.

Then, over the few hours she had stayed in the log cabin, she had, unknowingly, simmered down. And now, as she thought about Joel, she realized that she did not know shit about Joel's past, and she was afraid that whatever she as going to hear would change her opinion of Joel entirely and drastically.

She heard Tommy sigh in exasperation. "Okay then," He said in a weary tone. "We'll start from his time as a kid then." He let out a small grin when he felt Ellie's hand tighten around his body. He could almost feel the curiosity leaking out of her uncontrollably, even though his back was to her.

"Joel…had always been a smart person, even when he was a kid." He started his tale. "When he was in grade 1, he got third in his school. I took a look at his report book, and from grade 1 all the way to grade 12, he never got any lower than fifth in the school." Ellie's eyes widened in amazement and astonishment. Even though she didn't know what school was like before the cordyceps struck, she knew that getting the top five in school was really hard to achieve.

What's more, it was said that the present school's standards were considerably lower compared to the past. She never thought about Joel's intelligence, but now, the more she pondered over it, the more it made sense how he had survived over the past twenty plus years. He had the body, the wits, and the intelligence to survive.

"Our parents were really, really proud of him. Actually, I haven't even told you our ages yet. I'm 41, while he's 48." He informed her.

"Wait, what?! You're seven years younger than him?" Ellie interrupted him, not able to believe the age gap. Tommy chuckled lightly at her reaction, and nodded.

"Well, yea. I have to say, even at that time, it wasn't really common to have a brother seven years older than you." Ellie snorted at the idea of having a brother or a sister at all. In this world, at the current time…to many people, having a child is the last thing in their mind.

Though her parents were different, but her dad had died really soon after she was born, and her mother had left her a few years after that. At least Joel had his Mom and Dad…and Tommy.

Tommy could almost guess what was going through in her mind. Even though he was not as smart as Joel, he had way more understanding than Joel, which meant that he could see from people's point of view way better than Joel. Joel was smart, he was intelligent, he was stubborn and hardheaded. He believed his own set of rules and followed them almost all the time closely, but one thing he couldn't do was understand others. That's what made him so aloof and so unfriendly to the eyes of many.

"Now, don't you go making assumptions too soon," He said, surprising Ellie, as she had been doing just that. "Hear the rest of the story, then judge it however you want."

"During those times, I didn't know that my parents had been biased towards him. They saw him as the perfect boy, whereas they saw me as an outcast." When he turned and saw Ellie's puzzled gaze, he explained further. "You see, Joel had set high standards for them. He had been captain of the baseball club, the lead singer and guitarist of band, and-"

"Wait, he was the lead singer and guitarist?" Ellie asked incredulously. Tommy turned his head a little and snickered when he saw an astounded look that seemed to be plastered on her face. He nodded.

"Yea. Well, good times…anyway, since he was so excellent in everything, always excelling in everything he did, our parents had high expectations for me. Unfortunately, I was nowhere near he's level, and hence became the black sheep in the family, since both my parents had outstanding backgrounds too." He grunted, a little miffed at the thought of his parents.

Ellie, on the other hand, was envying Joel, as well as hating him by the second. Envying him because he had parents to fawn over him, and hating him because despite the good life he had lead, he still treated others like shit, still selfish.

She stifled her thoughts. Tommy had said not to jump to conclusions, and she would try to do so.

"Well, anyway, good things never last for anyone. During year nine, when he was fifteen, he met this girl called Abigail. She was the lead cheerleader in his school at that time. In the past, popular people always went into relationship with other popular people. And Abigail's charms caught Joel." His mood seemed to darken as he talked about Abigail, and Ellie could feel the atmosphere getting tense.

"He was the star in the school, but he was different from the rest. He was never really talkative with people, but he had lots of fans. Anyway, he fell for her, hard, and started to date her in the middle of the year," Tommy grunted. "They stayed in a relationship for a whole year."

"And then, one day, something horrifyingly bad happened." His tone had lowered into one of anger and bitterness. Ellie unconsciously tightened her hands around his waist in her anticipation, but neither of them noticed it.

"They went to a night club. Night clubs are where people drink beer and dance and party," he explained when he saw Ellie give him a questioning look. "So, due to their fans pressuring them, they went to compete on who could drink the most. Of course, at the end of the day, both went drunk and completely nuts. Well, everyone at that club did, according to Joel."

"That night, whilst in their drunken state, they didn't think straight. Because of that, they…had sex." Tommy said with much difficulty, wincing as he heard Ellie gasp at the newly revealed information.

"He was…sixteen? Isn't that a bit young?" She asked. Tommy nodded.

"It was young. And since they were both drunk, neither remembered that they didn't have any protection at all, which lead to Abigail getting impregnated with Sarah." Ellie nodded slowly, her mouth wide as she took in all the new information. She then scowled, as it further proved how irresponsible Joel had been.

"So yea, that's when things went downhill. Way downhill." He said darkly, causing Ellie to shiver a little at his tone. It sounded really bad.

"When they found out that Abigail was pregnant, they were clueless about what they should do. Unlike most boys, Joel didn't leave her side, but stayed with her," Tommy said with a smile, and was it pride in his voice? "They contemplated over it together, and decided to keep the baby. Abigail originally wanted to abort it, but after Joel told her that that would be as good as murdering someone, and that they were responsible for bringing the baby into this world, she gave in."

"And then came the time when they needed to tell their parents about it. Abigail's parents had freaked out over the whole ordeal, and they had thrown a fit that would have matched an angry bull. But, after they had simmered down, they decided to support Abigail. They were great parents." Tommy smiled wistfully, and then glared at the air in front of him when he remembered what his parents had done.

"Our parents, though," He continued. Ellie perked up at the mention of their parents. "Were a whole different case. They shouted and screamed, and kicked and flipped furniture all over the place. I was only eight turning to nine at that time, and had been hiding in my room, watching the whole event unfold from my room." Ellie almost chuckled, but restrained herself. It wasn't the right time, though the idea of this big, courageous man in front of her hiding from something made her want to laugh.

"After all," Tommy sighed. "They had seen Joel as the perfect son, and him doing such an shameful thing was unbecoming of him. He, of course, argued with them. They were so angry, so fixed on the image of having Joel become a perfect man, they had forgot that Joel himself wasn't perfect at all. In the end, they kicked Joel out of the house, and told him that they never wanted to see him again." Ellie went quiet this time, feeling sorry for Joel. Just because of one mistake, and Joel had been kicked out of his house, told by them that he wasn't wanted anymore. It must have hurt.

"I didn't see him for the next couple of months, but according to him, they had stayed under Abigail's roof for the months. He had, of course, dropped out of school as our parents had stopped paying for his school fees. By doing so, his grades, his leadership, his popularity, all fell down the drain at one go. He had nothing left except Abigail and Sarah." The way Tommy phrased it made Ellie want to cry. She tried to imagine losing everything she had, but couldn't. She didn't have much to begin with.

"They even got married! I was surprised when I heard the news. They truly loved each other- at least I like to think so. They got married five month after they found out about Sarah." He sighed once again, his mood dampening.

"Finally, Joel began to see some hope, but then, things didn't work well for him," Ellie braced herself for more bad news. "During Sarah's birth, something went wrong. Joel never told me what went wrong, but seconds after Sarah came out, Abigail died. I believe he told me that her last words as she held Sarah weakly was "Take care of her" and she was gone."

No amount of preparation could have prepared her for that kind of news. So that's what he meant when he had said that he was married for a short period of time. She had assumed that his wife had abandoned him. She hadn't even thought about her dying as she gave birth to Sarah.

Tears were threatening to spill out of her eyes. Once again, she held the tears back. She wasn't going to cry, but the more she heard about Joel's past, the more she forgave him for what he had done. She no longer felt the anger inside her, only sadness and sympathy. Joel, in the span of a year, had lost so many precious things.

His family abandoned him, his wife died after giving birth to his child. She thought that was as far as things could get, but the next few pieces of information proved her wrong.

"Her parents were beyond grief. They had housed Joel, they had spent much money for both of them and for the baby, but the main reason they did it was for Abigail. Abigail was their only child, their pride and joy. When she died…their joy and pride died with her," Tommy suddenly felt like he was ten years older. Even talking about Joel's past made him feel so much pain. He tried to imagine what it was like, imagining Maria dying. It was unbearable. "And so…they chased him out with the baby. They stopped paying for the hospital fees, threw everything that belonged to Joel out of their house, and shut the door at his begging face." Ellie gasped involuntarily. She certainly hadn't expected that to happen.

She had expected Abigail's parents to help to fulfill Abigail's last wish. Instead, they had shut Joel and Sarah out, leaving them with nothing but each other and the little Joel had. Ellie couldn't hold it back any longer, as a tear started to trickle down her face. Joel…

"Joel was left alone once again, this time with a baby in his care, no house, barely enough money to scrap by…nothing at all," Tommy said gruffly. Even he was getting a little emotional. "Those fucking idiots…all of them…and hence, Joel had to work part-time jobs. He had an athletic body, and hence took physical jobs whenever he could. I believe that out of 24 hours, he worked around 16 hours, and the rest of the time was to visit Sarah at the hospital, take his dinner, and then go and sleep at a park bench."

It was funny that she didn't feel that much pain here. Maybe it was because that at the present time, when they slept almost anywhere, and ate only a meager amount of food for every meal, she didn't feel much. But as she looked at Tommy's hunched back and stiff body, she knew that at their time, it must have been tough.

"I joined him around six years later," Tommy stated. "When I was fifteen. I ran away from our parents, as since Joel, they had gone into drinking and smoking. By that time, Sarah was already five, and They had a small apartment building." Tommy chuckled weakly.

"To tell the truth, I wasn't expecting him to be doing that well. It wasn't considered good living-far from it. But he had been surviving by himself, and raising a kid too. Sarah was healthy and well, and even schooling. I was really, really astonished that Joel managed to live so long." Tommy said, his body relaxing a little, and a soft smile rose onto his face.

"Sarah was really cute, and pretty. She was hyperactive, fun, playful…everything Abigail was and nothing like Joel. Now when I think about it, it must have hurt a lot for him, to be constantly reminded of his wife in Sarah." Ellie nodded, agreeing with him, whilst at the same time rubbing the tears off her eyes.

"So after that, I went to live with them, watched Sarah grow, Joel get a job, myself studying and doing a part-time job at the same time…life was pretty comfortable." Tommy said, but his expression told Ellie that something bad was going to happen. Again. And she could guess what it was.

"Joel…was about to lose his job, and frankly speaking, that job provided half he money he needed to continue supporting us. He was becoming desperate. On his birthday, Sarah gave him the watch. Y'know, the one he wears all the time?" Tommy asked. Ellie immediately recalled the broken watch Joel wore all the time.

"So that's why…" She trailed off, now regretting all the times she had pestered him to tell her why he wore the broken watch. She never knew.

"Well, yea. No one knows that but Maria, you, him and I. That night was one peaceful night, but then came the infection. You know what happened next." He ended the story grimly. Ellie was silent for the rest of the journey, and Tommy didn't try to get her to talk. He knew that she was thinking about everything he had said, and was trying to figure out what to do when she saw Joel.

She had never known he had suffered so much. She thought that the only thing that had happened to him was losing his daughter. How short-sighted she had been, forgetting that he probably had friends, family, and everything else he owned.

Yes, Joel being selfish was still a fact, but could she really blame him? He had suffered so much, and yet endured it all. Of course he would protect something precious to him.

_Precious to him._ Her eyes widened in realization. She had been so caught up in her misery, in her anger, in her guilt, she had not realized how Joel had been treating her, what she was in his eyes.

How could she have missed it? Every time he smiled, it was only when she was talking to him. Every time he called her 'baby girl' he was calling her his own daughter.

He _loved_ her. That alone caused her to sob, almost hysterically. She appreciated the fact that Tommy didn't do anything, or say anything. He knew better.

Who was the selfish one now? Joel had killed the fireflies and Marlene to save her, and she had responded by hating him, despising him. She never thought of how Joel felt, how much he had lost, how much he had left in the world.

She realized that _she _was the one that had been selfish. Everything he did, he did for her. Even though she didn't like the choice, he _had _saved her life; he _had _protected her for all those months, while he could have abandoned her long ago. He didn't even need to bring her to Tommy's, but he did, because he _wanted _to.

She had thought that she was alone. She had thought that no one loved her anymore. Everyone she cared for had left her or died. Her parents had died, her friends had died, even Marlene was even willing to sacrifice her life. No one had ever stayed in her life, or appreciated her for who she was.

But Joel, Joel was the one who stayed with her, who protected her, who didn't leave her, who was unwilling to give up her life for the entire human population.

Because he saw her as his daughter, because he loved her.

The tears started to spill, and the sobs became muffled cries as she leaned her face into Tommy's coat.

The rest of the journey back to the town was quiet, safe for the sobs of someone who had just found out that she was not alone anymore.


	7. Wyoming

**Hi guys! I'm sorry that it took a while, and this update isn't that long either.** **I've started school, and have co-cirrucular activities, so i don't have much time to do this.**

**By the way, thanks for the reviews, yea? Also, i would appreciate it if you refrain from telling me anything about Wyoming being near or far or whatever. All i know is that they are somewhere near Wyoming, and i do not live in US, so i don't know. **

**I appreciate the fact that people told me about Joel's and Sarah's age. I'll be correcting it now. Fyi, Sarah is 12, not 14(for the reviewer who told me she was 14.) **

**I don't like this chapter. It's not well-written, and i admit that i had a little difficulty writing this. About the part about him feeling like crying, i really felt that that is OOC, so i tried to make it as reasonable as possible. Please bear with me.**

**PLease PLEASE REVIEW and tell me your opinions, other than the minuscule mistakes like Wyoming not being near the dam or whatever. You get the point-he's in a city, and it's not near the settlement. There, done. XD HAHAH**

**Oh yea, IMPORTANT, i wanna ask u guys whether you want me to write an adventure, long long one, or a short and sweet story? The long adventure has Ellie and Joel taking two separate journeys btw. Short and sweet is nicer i think, but i want your opinions :)**

**ENJOY!**

* * *

"Fuck…" Joel cursed as he struggled to sit up. His mind was fuzzy, his vision was blurry, and his entire body ached from head to toe. He tried to sit up, but failed to do so. He gave up and decided to get a hold of his bearings.

His vision slowly got sharper, allowing him to get a better sight of where he was currently. He was in an abandoned house. The furniture were all rotting and decaying, clothes were thrown everywhere and looked like they hadn't been used for more than ten years, vines were crawling around a few areas, moss was growing at the corners and so on. All in all, the place looked like it hadn't been visited for a long, long time.

He frowned as he tried to recall what had happened to him. Why was he in this dilapidated house? Why did he feel like shit? Most importantly, where the fuck was he?

Suddenly, all the memories came rushing back to him like a tidal wave. His austere and somber talk with his brother. Ellie finding out about his doings. Rushing out to get her and try to explain to her. Chasing her with a horse. Encountering the bloody hunters. Leading them away from Ellie. Getting caught in the snowstorm and finally barely making it into the damn house before passing out.

"Shit Ellie!" He cursed, springing up to his feet. He was utterly surprised when he felt his legs buckle beneath him. As fast as lightning, he shot out his hand and grabbed the doorknob, trying to steady himself.

"Why the fuck am I so weak?" He muttered, panting heavily. He felt as though he had just run a marathon, while in actual fact, he had just stood up. That was bad. He was so low on energy, most of it had been expended on just bring himself up onto his feet, and he had no fucking idea where the hell he was.

And the fact that his mind was going crazy over whether Ellie was safe or not did not help in the least. He was just this close to going into a full-blown panic frenzy.

He closed his eyes and inhaled deep, long breaths, trying to calm his nerves. Breath in, breath out. Breath in, breath out.

After repeating the process for a minute or two, he decided that his nerves were calm enough, and his mind had stopped running in all directions about Ellie. He took one last deep breath, and exhaled, opening his eyes, now considerably calmer than before.

If he wanted to settle anything with Ellie, he had to find out where the bloody hell he was first, and of course, survive. He still felt weak, but strong enough to be able to stand up without holding onto anything. He slowly let go of the doorknob, and sighed in relief when his knees didn't buckle. It took quite a bit of effort to remain standing, but he wasn't going to give up anytime soon.

He then decided to have a closer inspection over the place. Other than what he had seen when he had woke up, there was nothing of great importance. He walked wobbly towards the window on his right and looked out. He grimaced, as he saw nothing but white. It meant good and bad. Good because it meant the snowstorm had ended only a few hours ago at max, which meant he hadn't been out for long.

Bad because it would cause him much more trouble to get back to Tommy's settlement. As much as he hated it, he had to submit to the fact that he would not be able to find Ellie in his current condition. He groaned in frustration at that thought.

How the hell was he going to go back? Of course, he could take some snow for water and maybe sleep a little bit for food, but he knew that hunters would be around soon, and without food, he wouldn't have enough energy to walk all the way back to the settlement. What's more, because of his hastiness, he had forgotten to bring out even his standard backpack. That meant no food and no weapons.

"Damn. Fuck this situation…" He cursed and swore under his breath as he pounded the window. Due to his immensely weakened state, he couldn't even put a crack in the window, while usually he would be able to punch through any.

For the first time in twenty years, he felt like crying. Ever since his daughter, Sarah, had died in his arms, there hadn't been a single event that had been important or sad enough to make him cry. Not Tess, not Sam, not even the death of some of his close friends. His parents? Screw them.

But then came Ellie, the overly mature, selfless, stubborn and hot-headed girl that barged into his life and turned it upside down. How had she changed him so much? How had she become such an integral part of his life?

He didn't know. He didn't _fucking_ know how. And now, she had become so important to him, he even felt like crying. It saddened him, despaired him when he thought about her hating him.

He had accepted the fact resignedly, reluctantly, a few months ago, whilst reflecting over the whole firefly ordeal, that Ellie had became his second daughter to him. He hated it, despised it, but yet loved and adored that fact. He hated it because he knew it would cost him, but he loved it because he finally felt happiness again. A belonging. A home.

He had been willing, and _had_ given up what possibly was the only hope for humankind's survival for her. He had been willing to sacrifice the world to get her back alive.

That was how important she had become to him. And now, she probably hated him for what he had done.

He shook his head violently, clearing his head of all the self-pitying thoughts and worries. They would do him no good. If he wanted to settle anything, or to even see Ellie again, he would have to get back to the town alive.

He noticed that he was moving his body with more ease than before. He realized that it hadn't only been the lack of energy that had gave him such a hard time to stand up.

His body had been in a hibernation state, and hence wasn't exactly active and warmed up. Once he had woken up, slowly, his body had started to function somewhat normally again, making his body warm up. It was a hell lot easier to move now.

That was the first good thing he had experienced since the time he had woken up. He cautiously straightened his body, and took a careful step forward. His legs didn't buckle, and even though there was a hint of exhaustion, he didn't feel too weary. He breathed a sigh of relief and grabbed the doorknob, and twisted it before pulled the door inwards.

Snow immediately piled around his feet as he opened the door, all the way up to his ankles. He cursed and lifted his legs out of the pile and stepped outside. The air was cold, but nothing he couldn't handle. The sky was clear, and some snow was already melting. Judging by the position of the sun, it was early afternoon.

His eyes scanned his surroundings as he walked to the side of the house and looked beyond. His eyes widened slightly in surprise. Before him was a city. To be exact, it was Wyoming. He scowled. It wasn't very far from the settlement, but he couldn't say it was near either. If he had to walk on foot, it would take at least a day. He couldn't believe how far the damn horse had taken him away from the settlement.

On top of that, his mind was continuously plagued by the thoughts of Ellie's safety. Had Ellie been caught in the snowstorm too? Had Tommy reached her in time? Had the hunters caught her? Was she even _alive_?

He cringed at the last assumption, and immediately pushed away every single thought Ellie's fate for the time being. He considered his choices. Go into the city to search for weapons and supplies, or immediately start trekking to Tommy's.

He was so tempted to start to go to Tommy's settlement straight away, but his survival instincts kicked in, and he sighed in exasperation. Even if he wanted to just run all the way to the settlement that very moment, he knew that going through the woods without even a single weapon would be suicide. Plus, he needed some food and water, and no matter how scarce it would be, at a city this large, there are bound to be supplies.

Unfortunately, it also meant that that there would be infected and hunters. Luckily, though, the infected were probably buried six feet under with snow- at least, those that was outdoors. Hence, he didn't need to worry so much about them when he was walking around.

Besides, he was only going to search the houses at the outskirts of the town. He didn't want to risk going too deep. He knew that the hunters from before would probably chase him here too. He didn't have much time. It seemed like they hadn't reached the city yet. He still had some time.

He turned back and walked into the house, eyes sharply catching every detail of the place, trying to pinpoint supplies and potential 'ingredients' for weapon.

The Joel for the past six months had, at the moment, retreated back deep into his heart. From now on, it was the killer, the survivor, the cold and meticulous Joel.

At least, until he found Ellie. That was one part that he wouldn't be able to ignore, no matter how hard he tried.


	8. Preparation

**Hi guys! Sorry for the late update! really,r early busy these few days!**

**Anyway, I guess i'll write the short and sweet. After that, i will be writing short chapters about what they do together after this story.**

**Anyway, there's not much here. Just Tommy returning. you can consider this a filler? the next one will be more eventful. The story would probably come to an end in 5 to 7 chapters, and after that are the short stories.**

**Thanks for the reviews! and seriously, PLEASE JUST LEAVE A REVIEW so i know you're actually reading this? PLEASE? HAHA okay nvm if you don't want to, but they really do mean a lot.**

**I don't think this is a well-written chapter, but i'm short on time. Sorry, really . anyway, enjoy!**

* * *

"She's asleep…" He whispered to himself as the horse trotted on the snow towards the settlement. He could already see the Dam's doors from where they were.

After Ellie had heard Joel's story, and seemingly got struck with some kind of revelation, she had sobbed her heart out into his back, and eventually went to sleep after calming down.

Needless to say, whilst she was crying, he had felt extremely awkward and helpless. He did have experience with kids, but Ellie was different.

The very first time he had seen Ellie, he knew that Ellie was no normal, fourteen-year old kid. Her eyes held wisdom that was beyond her age, her body language told him that she was very fit and ready to fight for survival at any time, and she was always strong and calm, even when the bandits had trapped her and Maria in the room the first time they had been to the dam.

The past six months had merely strengthened his first opinion of her. She showed wisdom in everything she did- even though she does act rashly sometimes. She was really healthy and fit, being able to stay under the sun for three to four hours tending to the crops. Also, she was very helpful, and kind too. She helped whenever someone asked her to.

And her accuracy with her gun was one of the best he had ever seen. She held her hunting rifle with such confidence and steadiness that he couldn't help but be entranced whenever she practices her shooting in the settlement's shooting range. She never flinched whenever she shot an animal, and she had proven many times that she could kill another human without a bat of an eyelid.

He had compared her to many adults, and even though he hated to admit it, almost all of them-including himself- were not as precise or calm as her whenever they were in a battle. The only person who he knew that could be as good, or even better than her, was none other than his own older brother, Joel.

Joel was, to him, a brother. But, at times, he couldn't help but see Joel as a monster. A cold, heartless, efficient killing machine. In the past, when they had survived together, Joel had done things that neither of them would approve of. He had done many, many horrible and terrible things. After Sarah had died, Joel had changed from a warm, loving man to a merciless killer.

However, after ten years of absolutely no contact with each other, He sees his long lost brother again, and this time with a girl. At first, he couldn't believe his eyes. But, when he did, he couldn't help but feel elated. It was small, it as tiny, but he could see whenever Joel looked at Ellie, or talked to her, he looked more like his old self. The one whom Tommy liked, the one whom everyone else at their time loved.

And it was because of the wise, calm, kind but merciless when needed girl called Ellie that had allowed Joel to start recovering. The past six months had only brought more progress in Joel's recovery to his old self.

Hence, he was utterly surprised and astonished when he heard Ellie transform from a calm, collected survivor into a bawling, emotional girl. He doubted that she had shown this side to anyone at all, though he couldn't be too sure. He realized that everything that he thought about Ellie, would eventually lead him to think about Joel.

It seemed like the two, to him, was one package. He couldn't think of one without his thoughts leading to the other.

* * *

He held up his hand and waved to the guards at the dam doors. He had chosen not to go back to the stables by the woods. Hunters would be stalking in the jungle at that area. The only reason why they never attacked was because of the electric fence that surrounded the settlement.

Speaking about that, how the hell had Ellie gone through the electric fence? He knew that there was a gate there, but it was always locked…

"Thank God you're both alright!" Arthur, the man who had been tending to the horses when Ellie, Joel and himself had left, rushed up to him. He chuckled weakly and nodded.

"Yea, both safe and uninjured. Really lucky." He said lightheartedly as they entered the settlement through the gates. He could see several other men coming out of the station to see and greet him.

He had only been out of the settlement for a few hours, but he already missed it dearly. The safety he felt, his friends, his wife.

However, no matter how much he loved and wanted to greet them back, there were more important things to deal with.

"Arthur, mind explaining to me why the hell were the doors to the jungle open?" He said, his tone serious and with a hint of accusation. Arthur had the nerve to look sheepish.

"I had came back from patrol, and wanted to tend to the horses first before closing the gate," he explained. "I'm really sorry. It was really irresponsible and careless of me." He apologized almost immediately when he saw Tommy about to go into a rage.

"Don't be next time." He told him. Arthur nodded his head vigorously. Tommy stared at him for a few more seconds, and then sighed resignedly. His body perked up when he thought of a certain someone.

"By the way," Arthur's head snapped up, his eyes watching Tommy attentively. "Has Joel come back yet? He should be back by now…I hope." Tommy said, but shook his head when he saw Arthurs confused look.

"So I guess he's not back yet. Figures. If he doesn't find Ellie, he wouldn't come back in just a day or two." Tommy grunted.

"We haven't seen head nor tail of him." Arthur confirmed his guess. He groaned.

"More trouble. Always. With him around, all I get is trouble…"He grumbled. "Anyway, I'm going to put this back at the stables. You better get going. I can see Maria storming towards here." He suggested as he caught sight of Maria running from the control building. Arthur looked at Maria, and then looked at Tommy sympathetically.

"Good luck." He wished before hurrying away. Tommy took a deep breath, preparing himself for his wife's tantrum as he got down from the horse.

"Tommy!" She shouted, tackling him down onto the ground before he could even help Ellie out of the horse. He immediately brought his hands up to protect his face once his back touched the hard ground.

"You. Mother. Fucker. Stop. Doing. All. This. Stupid. Actions. That. Can. Get. Yourself. Killed!" She punched with every word she said. Tommy winced as her blows landed on his forearms as he protected his face. She may be a woman, but her punches were really _painful._

Finally, after twenty or so more blows, her blows became weak enough for him to know that she was almost done. He proceeded to grab her wrists.

"Look, look! Sorry! I wasn't thinking. What did you expect me to do, leave them?" He asked.

"I would rather you stay here and be safe then go out and risk your life for them!"

"Joel's my brother, damnit!"

"You and him haven't talked in years! And then he comes barging in and cause you to go and risk your life!" She shouted back at him. He could see everyone from the settlement observing them, could feel their gazes set on them. But, he didn't let his eyes slip off Maria's.

"Look, Maria," He said. "Joel is the reason why I'm still alive. I can't just let him die." Maria's face morphed into one of exhaustion. It was so sudden, so quick, that Tommy was stunned for a moment, and did not get up for a couple of seconds after she stood up.

"…Maria?" He said her name cautiously, not knowing what to expect from her. She had turned around and her shoulders were shaking.

"…Fuck?" He couldn't do anything but swear incredulously. For the six years he had known her, he had never seen her even close to tears. Not when her closest friend, Katie, had died in her arms. Not when she had seen her brother shoot herself in the head after he was bitten.

"Damnit, Tommy. Every time you go out…I…I get afraid that you'll die. Every time, every _fucking_ time you go out. there's this excruciating fear that you'll never come back! That I'll be fucking alone this time, with no one else beside me!" She shouted. Her eyes were teary, and she was sniffing, but being the strong person she was, she wouldn't allow herself to cry.

"Then, Maria, just as you are precious to me, and I am precious to you, Joel and Ellie feel the same way to each other. And that's why…since I care for both of them…I need to go and find Joel." He whispered softly. He could feel her body stiffen, and he prepared for another long tirade from her.

But, to his utter surprise, she merely stepped back and looked at him in the eye, now filled with determination and courage.

"You go put Ellie to rest at their house, and we're going to find him." She said forcefully. He opened his mouth to argue about her following, but seeing her face, he gave up. No matter how much he would try to dissuade her, she would not be dissuaded.

"I'll go and prepare around ten of us. I'm sure we'll need numbers if we encounter hunters. I'll send some scouts forward to track him first." She said, and walked away without waiting for his reply. He stared at her retreating back, and pride swelled up in his chest. A bright grin appeared on his face. He really was lucky to have Maria.

* * *

"There you go…" he muttered as he gently laid the sleeping Ellie onto her bed. She must have been real tired, for her to sleep through the argument of him and Maria. He knew that if she found out Joel was still out there, she would insist on following them to find him.

He looked at her face. She was only fourteen, but he could already see what the past few months had did to her. Even though her face was still youthful, there were a few faint weary lines on her face, and her brows were scrunched up, her eyes tightly shut. He felt sadness and pity for the girl-so young, and so troubled and traumatized.

To tell the truth, whenever he observed Ellie, he noticed that she always forced herself to act happy around others. Even around him, she would act cheerful and happy. But, he had studied her behavior around others and around Joel, and there was a stark difference.

Whenever she was with Joel, her eyes was always twinkling brightly, and her face looked ten years younger. Her body would be more relaxed, and her behavior was natural instead of forced.

Even if she hadn't noticed yet, she had already accepted Joel as a close friend, a guardian, a trusted protector.

Maybe even a Father.

That thought made his heart ache, for her and for Joel.

"I'll find him. I promise." He whispered softly, taking one last look at Ellie's troubled face before turning and walking out of the house.


	9. Recorders

**Hi guys! I hope you'll like this chapter :) It's pretty long. Sorry for any mistakes. I have school and i need to sleep early. So yea.**

**Hope you guys will enjoy this chapter! I think it's quite an okay chapter, personally, so yea, enjoy! :D thanks for the reviews. AND PLEASE REVIEW YOUR THOUGHTS! :) I NEED IT HAHAHA kay nvm don't review if you dont wanna :D**

* * *

"All good to go?" Maria asked loudly to the squad of ten men, excluding her and Tommy. They were all armed with different kinds of weapons- pipes, planks, shivs, pistols, hunting rifles…they looked like men going to war.

They were currently at the dam gates, waiting for the scout to return and give them sone information about what's happening outside.

"Yea. Gotta find the old man's even older brother, right?" A twenty-three year old man named Steven teased. Several others chuckled, whilst some merely smiled at the small joke. Maria snorted and Tommy glared.

"You'll be my age one day, Steve. Don't be too happy." He retorted. Steve shrugged.

"Anyway," Maria interrupted before any one else could add in. "Once the scouts are back, we'll be heading off to the location. Do a last check on everything you guys need, collect and arrange your thoughts and feelings, and be prepared to lose your life." She stated it so easily, the men almost believed that they wouldn't have any problem surviving.

But, of course, they weren't that gullible. They knew that Maria was worried too. Out there, no matter how professional or experienced they were, one slight misstep, one simple mistake, and their lives would be gone in one fell swoop.

"Maria, call me when the scout returns," Tommy whispered to Maria. Maria gave him a questioning glance. "I'll check on Ellie one last time. Perhaps she has woken up." He explained. She frowned, but nodded.

"Go quickly. I don't wanna leave too late. Y'know why." She stated knowingly. He nodded, and jogged towards the settlement. A sudden thought struck him- what was he going to say if she had already woken up, and asked about Joel? She would definitely insist on going with them if he told her, and he didn't want to endanger her life in that way.

He shook his head as he couldn't think up of any solution other than lying. And even with the lie, it would be very risky. Nevertheless, it was worth a try.

* * *

He sighed in relief as he opened the door to Ellie's room. Partly because Ellie was already sitting up, and partly because he felt really lucky that he had thought up about the lie. He assumed that she must have just woke up, as she was still rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"Hey there. You're finally awake." He greeted her with a nod. She looked up with her bright green, always curious eyes. Currently, they were filled with wonderment and slight worry.

"Tommy?" She said in a half-awake voice. "How long have I been out? Are we back? What time is it? Have we found Joel? Why are you dressed up as if you're going for war?" She asked. Tommy chuckled, noticing her usual habit of asking too many questions at a time.

He could tell that she was about to ask more, and immediately spoke up. "Wait, wait, let me answer one question at a time first please." He said in a light-hearted tone. She closed her mouth, realizing what she had just done, and gave a small, sheepish smile.

"Sorry." She apologized. Tommy waved his hand off-handedly.

"Never mind. Anyway, to answer your questions, you've been out for only a few hours. Its around three in the afternoon." And he paused and pretended to take a deep breath, but was actually preparing to lie without giving off any sign of hesitancy.

"Yea, we've found Joel," He said with a smile. Her eyes widened, but before she could say anything, he interrupted. "He's actually walking around the settlement, wanting to clear his head and stuff." He explained, coming up with it at the last minute.

Maybe it was because she was half-awake, or maybe it was because his acting was too good, but she seemed to buy it, and lay back down on the bed. She didn't let out any obvious signs, but he could tell that she was really relieved. That merely caused him to feel a lot guiltier.

"And finally," he continued when Ellie didn't say anything for the next few seconds. "I'm dressed like this because we're going for a huge-scale hunting. These are just precautions in case there are hunters."

Silence filled the room. Tommy shifted from foot to foot, feeling awkward, not knowing what to say to the brooding girl lying on the bed. She was staring at the ceiling, and he could tell that she was recalling and reflecting on what had been revealed for the past few days.

"Well," he started when he couldn't handle it anymore. "I better be going. You just stay here and rest. There's some food on the dining table that I prepared, so if you're hungry, it's there for ya." He said. Ellie nodded absently.

"Stay safe." She wished him in a faraway voice. He nodded, though he doubted she even noticed it, and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him gently. Once he closed it, he sighed in relief.

He had managed to get through the first obstacle. Now comes the hard part.

* * *

"Tommy! Maria!" The scout, a guy in his early twenties named John, shouted as he ran towards them from the gates. "I've located Joel!"

As expected, a commotion immediately started among the squad. Tommy and Maria's eyes were a little wide in surprise. Surprise that he had managed to locate Joel. They had only been expecting leads.

"Are you sure? Have you actually seen him?" Maria interrogated John, who was panting due to the sprinting he had done to reach them. He nodded vigorously and without any form of hesitation.

"I'm sure. But..." His voice went a bit lower. "Well, I haven't actually seen him, but i saw his horse corpse, and I heard a few gunshots and-"

"What gunshots? What do you mean?" Tommy interrupted once he heard about the guns. A feeling of dread started to seep into him.

"The city. Wyoming. His horse was dead a few meters away from the outskirts of Wyoming. And when I examined the horse, I heard gunshots echo in the city. I'm sure the horse was ours." He explained. Tommy gritted his teeth at his, and Joel's luck.

"Fuck. We gotta get going! I'm pretty sure that it's Joel. If by any chance it isn't…it may still be people who are not hunters. Move out!" Tommy shouted at the men, who all ran to their respective horses that had been prepared beforehand.

"This better work. For us, and for Ellie." Maria growled as she hefted herself up her horse. Tommy did the same.

"Especially for Ellie." He said, and rode on, taking the lead as the rest trailed behind him, the hoofs of their horses creating footprints in the snow as they galloped towards the city.

* * *

What the fuck was she supposed to do? Joel was back…and it seemed like neither of them were ready to talk to each other yet.

She didn't know what to feel. It was the first time since she had found out about him killing the fireflies and Marlene that she was safe and sound, in a familiar place. Hence, it meant that she had much more time to think, with a much clearer mind.

"What should I do…" She muttered. She knew that she had already forgiven him, no matter how much she would try to deny it. Since the revelation when she was with Tommy…

She heard something growl, and jumped out of bed, her alertness spiking up. Only when she realized that the growl was coming from her stomach did she relax and even chuckle at her own reaction. Getting scared by her own stomach!

She shook her head and decided to first fill her stomach up, since it was signaling pretty loudly that it needed to be filled up. She opened the door and could instantly smell something spicy in the air. Her mouth began to water, and she couldn't help but rush towards the smell.

A big grin appeared on her face when she saw the food on the table. Curry chicken, rice, a bowl of smoking soup. They were all emitting smoke, which meant that they were still quite warm.

"Thanks, Tommy!" She thanked him and swiftly sat down on the chair and started to eat.

The meal was, to say the least, the best meal she had ever got. It was quite rare to get such a scrumptious meal out there, but at Tommy's settlement, it's quite easy.

"Fuck yea. I'm full." She said to herself, her voice filled with satisfaction. She patted her stomach lightly and sighed, slumping down into her chair.

For a few minutes, she was at peace. The warm house, the carpeted floor, the quiet surroundings…it was a life that she never imagined she would ever be able to live.

She then stiffened up when she thought about _why _she was even able to live this kind of life. If what Tommy had said was true, that Marlene really wanted to kill her, and Joel had saved her life…than it was because of him that she could live this life.

She stood up violently, the chair landing on the floor with a loud thud. Anger was starting to seep into her. But, it wasn't anger at Joel.

It was anger at herself, for feeling so blissful, for forgetting the price. Fuck, she didn't even know whether what Joel had claimed was true. What if Marlene hadn't really wanted to kill her? She may have somewhat forgiven Joel, but she dearly wanted to believe that Marlene had not wanted to kill her.

Like many times before, even though she dearly wanted to believe that Joel had lied about it, she knew Joel, and knew that he wouldn't kill the fireflies without a reason, especially if the fireflies were supposed to be on their side. If Marlene had died, it meant that she had been in his way, which meant that she had wanted to kill her too.

However, she couldn't help but wish that there was at least some concrete evidence that Marlene had wanted to kill her. At least…

She obviously was not ready to see Joel yet, judging by her current thoughts and feelings. She glared at the floor, annoyed at herself for being so damn fucking insecure and indecisive.

After a few seconds of taking deep breaths and calming her nerves, she decided to visit Joel's room. She didn't know why. Perhaps it was because she missed him. Maybe it was because she was curious of what he had in his room. It may even be because she wanted to find some evidence to tell her whether what he had said was true.

"…Seriously, Joel? Can't you just personalize your room a little?" She grumbled to herself as she scanned the room. There was a bed, a wooden desk with a lamplight, some drawers and a wardrobe. Everything looked neat and tidy.

His bed was packed neatly. There wasn't an object in open sight, as all of them had been kept into drawers. Unlike her room, which was messed up with stray clothing and comic books.

She slowly walked further into the room. Even though the whole place looked barren, she could feel his presence here. She somehow knew that he had slept and lived here. She didn't know why.

"Woah. Does he even need a wardrobe?" She wondered as she opened the doors and found only five different sets of clothing. It looked amazingly sparse.

"As usual…" she muttered to herself as she opened her drawer and found parts of weapons, ammunition and a pistol. She noticed his backpack lying right beside the desk, and went to check it out. As always it was fully packed and ready to go.

"Glad he's safe…he won't go anywhere outside the settlement without his backpack, which means he's in the town somewhere." She felt relieved.

She looked at the desk and saw a few more drawers that came with it. Unable to restrain her curiosity, she proceeded to opening the drawers.

Inside them were filled with papers. She frowned as she took out a pile of them and flipped through them. Her eyes widened as she saw all the maps, contacts, plans, and even an occasional letter. This was what he had been doing before he had met her. All the maps, all the contacts, plans, transactions…she realized just how experienced Joel was. If he had not been this experienced, she would have died long ago.

She sighed at that thought. Just another thing that she had to thank Joel for. What a fucked up world.

"What is this?" She asked herself as she took out three recorders. She knew that Joel had picked up some letters and recorders that other survivors had left from time to time, but she always saw him throw them away sooner or later, as it took up too much space in his backpack. If he kept these, it must have been important.

She knew that her very being in the room was already an invasion of his privacy, and listening to this will probably just add on to the list. Nevertheless, she pressed the play button anyway.

Her eyes widened as she heard Marlene's voice. _"It's five thirty pm on April 28th. I just finished speaking... heh.. more like yelling at our head surgeon. Apparently there's no way to extricate the parasite without eliminating the host. Fancy way of saying we've got to kill the fucking kid. And now they're asking for my go ahead. The tests just keep getting harder and harder don't they. I'm so tired... I'm exhausted... and I just want this to end... So be it.."_

A storm of emotions hit her like a wave, and she couldn't stop her tears from escaping her eyes. They were like a river, flowing down her cheeks and finally dripping onto the ground. Her entire body was quivering, her eyes wide in shock and her jaw dropped.

She had wished for concrete evidence, and now, she had it.

"She…she…really…" Ellie said in between sobs. Marlene had been a surrogate mother to her. No matter how much she had not spent time with her, she had still been the reason why she had managed to live till she was fourteen. Ellie couldn't believe that Marlene had actually agreed to let her be killed. For the longest time, she had been quite sure that the people who definitely won't let her be killed was Marlene.

And then came the revelation, Joel telling Tommy that Marlene had agreed to kill her. Somewhere deep inside her heart, she had denied that it was true. But now, there was concrete evidence. It was _her_ voice. No doubt about it.

She stared at the recorder in her hand, and stared, and stared. Her mind was still processing what she had just heard, her heart was still accepting the fact, her being was still trying to control the surging sadness and pain that was slowly overwhelming it. It was funny why her tears had already started falling when she haven't even gotten the fact through her head yet. Did it hurt that much?

She watched, with difficulty, through a haze of tears, as her other hand seemingly pressed the play button of the second recorder by itself, without her willing it to do so. She closed her eyes, afraid of what she was about to hear, bracing herself as best as she could.

_"Hey Anna. It's been awhile since we spoke. I um.. I just gave the OK to proceed with the surgery. I really doubt I had much of a choice. Asking you is more of a formality. I need you to know that I've kept my promise all these years. Despite everything that I'm in charge of, I looked after her. I would have done anything for her and at times… Here's a chance to save us. All of us. This is what we were after. What you were after. They asked me to kill the smuggler. I'm not about to kill the one man in this facility who understands the weight of this choice. Maybe he can forgive me. Oh I miss you Anna. Your daughter will be with you soon. "_

"Promise…" She whispered. That word, that _fucking _word. It only brought pain and sorrow, the word full of trust and sincerity that always lead to doom and destruction. Marlene had promised to take care of her, and she had broken it when she allowed Ellie to die. But, yet, hearing those words, hearing Marlene say all those words, she knew that Marlene had not wanted her to die. What Marlene had done- letting her be sacrificed without her permission- was horrible, yes. But, she had the right to do so, didn't she? After all she had taken care of her all this while. Even if she had not been there for her all the time, she was the main reason why Ellie was alive and kicking today.

That made Ellie feel guilty once again. Marlene had been willing to sacrifice, to break her promise to her best friend, to save humanity. She had been willing to sacrifice Ellie, whom she had taken care of for so many years, for humanity, and Joel had killed her in cold blood. And then she remembered why Joel had killed her. Her emotions were in turmoil.

Ellie was sobbing her hearts out by that time, grief overwhelming her, confusion eating up her mind. She didn't know who was right, who was wrong. Should she be guilty, or should she be angry? Should she forgive Marlene, or should she forgive Joel? Who, why, how?

Through her tears, her eye caught sight of another recorder. This one was a different brand from Marlene's. With shaky hands, she put down the two recorders and picked up the last one. She gave up on bracing herself for whatever. It was no use. She knew that she would be a shivering, sobbing ball of messed up emotions and thoughts by the end of the recording, but she pressed the play button anyway.

What she heard was way off what she had expected to hear. It was Joel.

_ "I don't know why I'm doing this, but right now, I'm having so much pent up feelings and so many thoughts, I just have to let it out."_

_ "I…I killed the fireflies. I killed Marlene too. All for her, for Ellie. I never knew she had become such an integral part of my life. She was once just cargo to me, and now…now, she's like a daughter."_

_ "When they said that they had to kill her, my whole fucking world went tumbling down. __Huh, it's been a while since I felt that, and for some kid, no less. The only thing I could think of was…well, I couldn't think. All this while, I thought that she would not need to die. I was too short-sighted, too stupid to see that she would indeed have to die. "_

_ "I had come up with so much wishful thinking, about what I'm going to do with her in the future, about what it would be like. Frankly, that was the only reason why I kept on escorting her- for that hope, that vision. Well, fuck, it went down the drain in less than ten seconds."_

_ "Marlene said that she would be willing to sacrifice anything for Ellie. What sort of Bullshit is she saying. If she meant what she said, she would not give the go for her brain to be cut out of her head. Her life means so much more than humanity. If she really was her surrogate mother, if she really saw Ellie as her daughter, she would never let her go."_

_ "What's left of humanity to safe anyway? People who kill others without mercy to get supplies, people who are cannibals, people who smuggle drugs day in and day out. After the cure-then what? The military would never accept them, the people would just commit more crimes to get the cure without a price, and nothing would have changed. Nothing, except the fact that Ellie would be dead."_

_ "If, by any chance, Ellie hears this…Ellie, well, fuck. You know I'm not the type to apologise for anything. All I want to say to you is that under my watch, you definitely will not fucking die. No way in hell. I'm not gonna allow you to die after all that I had done to keep you alive, got that? …actually, I hope you'd never find this, as that probably means you would find out about everything I've done. I'm…afraid that you'll leave…like everyone else."_

_ "I don't even know why I'm doing this. It's just a fucking impulse. I know I should probably destroy the recorders and Ellie will probably never find out about this. But I can't. I just can't."_

_ "Perhaps, in the future, maybe many, many years later, I'll reveal it to her. And hope that she would be able to forgive me."_

Ellie gripped the edge of the desk tightly, her knees too weak to support her any longer. She didn't know what to think.

"Joel...Joel, fuck you. Why do you…have to make it so complicated, huh? You and your fucking…" She cursed and swore at him, though she knew that she didn't mean anything at all.

Marlene had been willing to sacrifice her, but Joel had not. Like before, when she was riding with Tommy, she cried her heart out. Why the fuck did it have to be Joel that's the one to be unable to give her up? Why, of all people, must it be him?

And he had said that she was his world. "_My whole world tumbled down_" Was what he had said. "_she's like a daughter_" He said.

"_You always find something to fight for." _His words from just before they had entered Tommy's settlement, six months ago, floated through her mind.

She was his reason. And all she could think of, for the past few hours, was how Joel never gave her a choice, and get angry at him. She had realized it while she was with Tommy, but hearing it was a whole different story. It proved that she really was precious to him, really was his world.

She didn't know when she fell asleep, or how long she took to. All that she could think of, was about Joel's recordings.

And all she could say was his name, which held about the dearest thing in the world to her, though she'll never admit it.


	10. Fight

**HI GUYS! Yea, so this chapter is...i guess quite okay? HAHA Sorry, its 12 here and i have school tomorrow, so i need to sleep soon.**

**Anyway, thanks for all the awesome reviews, yea? Your reviews really are precious to me! I get the motivation to write more thwnever i see one review after another. So yea, PLEASE REVIEW!**

**OH and please give CONSTRUCTIVE criticism, alright? If you have any, that is, which you will have HAHA**

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* * *

"Can't these go any faster?" Tommy yelled as he, Maria and the ten other men rode their horses through the dense jungle to the city.

"We're going as fast as we can, Tommy!" Maria replied. Tommy gritted his teeth in frustration as he calculated how much more time was needed to cover the damn distance.

"Damnit, Joel. Just five more minutes…don't you dare die. Don't you dare, if not for me, then for Ellie." He whispered, urging his horse to go faster, gripping the reins tightly as worry filled his mind.

* * *

"Fucking hell…" Joel swore under his breath as he ducked beneath a counter. The sound of a bullet colliding with the wall rang through the shop. If he hadn't ducked, he would have been shot in the head by then.

He had managed to scavenge a few supplies during the first two hours of his forage. There were some energy bars, canned food, and bottles of drinking water thrown carelessly all over the places in a number of houses, and even a back pack to store the items. It seemed like there had been many survivors that had chosen to reside in Wyoming before continuing on their journey, or before they died at the hands of the hunters.

He had almost been satisfied with his strength level and supplies, as well as weapons, when the hunters arrived. They swarmed into the city like a large group of bees, shouting and screaming at each other about where to go and what to do.

"Come out! You're outnumbered fifty to one! There's no fucking point hiding already! You'll die anyway!" A hunter shouted, his voice filled with anger as well as frustration. Joel snorted quietly at that.

"Like hell I will." He muttered to himself and lifted up his pistol, which he had found beside a skeleton in one of the houses, fully loaded. With speed that rivaled a snake, he shot up, took aim, shot a bullet right through one of the patrolling hunter's head, and ducked back down. That all happened in less than five seconds.

"Fuck! Just Fuck you, you son of a bitch!" He could hear the rage and resentment in the hunter's voice. He scowled, his free hand clenching tightly as anger boiled in him. These fucking people were the ones hunting and killing others, and they get angry when others kill one of them in self-defence? Fucking hypocrites!

He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, calming his thoughts and soothing his raw nerves. It wasn't the time to get angry. Anger would only lead to recklessness, which would lead to mistakes, and ultimately his death.

And no matter how much Ellie hated him, he couldn't die until he had seen, and apologized to her for what he had done, though he knew that it was unforgivable.

He focused, closing his eyes and trying to catch the slightest sound emitted from the place. He could hear the heavy breathing of a hunter a few meters away from the counter, he could hear the light footsteps from another hunter outside, probably trying to sneak up on him by the back door of the shop.. He opened his eyes and turned around, tensing his body, waiting for the unfortunate hunter to appear at the doorway behind him.

The moment he saw the hunter's shadow, he raised his pistol, leaned to the side so that he could see the hunter, and fired, point blank, straight at the hunter's head, killing him instantly. Blood splattered everywhere,, some of them falling onto Joel. Twenty years ago, he would have vomited in disgust straight away. Now, he didn't feel a thing.

It made him wonder whether Sarah would approve of what he was doing now. How he was surviving, his reasons for living.

He cursed and shook his head, jerking back and slamming his back against the counter as a bullet hit the spot just above where his head had been. He mentally berated himself for losing concentration at the task at hand. If the hunter had not messed up, he would be dead by now, the same way he had killed so many hunters before that very moment.

"Damnit!" He heard the hunter curse, almost inaudibly. If his ears had not been trained to be like an bat's, he would probably have not heard it. That small curse gave him s sick sense of satisfaction.

These people thought they could just go in and kill anyone, take their stuff, destroy their lives, and leave with everything in tow. He wasn't going to let them get away so easily.

He had to hurry and move from his hiding place. He had stayed behind the counter for five minutes already, and he was pretty sure that the other scouting hunters had heard the gunshots and were already making their way to his very position.

"Shit…" He cursed as he heard two more hunters arrive.

"What the fuck? Its only one guy!" One of them shouted, anger making him reckless. He ran towards the counter, probably thinking about tackling Joel before Joel could aim and shoot.

Joel almost laughed at his foolish action. That very action alone told him that though the hunters were large in numbers, their experience were probably not up to par with others he had encountered before. He took out his standard improvised melee weapon- a steel pipe with a scissors taped together with it.

The hunter grunted in pain as the scissors pierced straight through his lungs. He tried to lift his pistol, but Joel had grabbed it and twisted it, such that his hand lost grip over the gun. The gun clattered onto the floor loudly. Joel watched as the life in his eyes seeped away.

He briefly wondered why the hunters had not taken a shot at him when he had been "wrestling" with that hunter, but had no time to consider.

"Fuck this. I'm outta here." He decided, taking out his very own-made nail bomb he had made while foraging the place and throwing it at the hunters. He then sprinted out of the shop, jumping out of the shop just as the bomb exploded, causing shards of metal to fly everywhere. He heard a few screams of pain, and knew that the hunters in the shop had been hit.

Not waiting to check whether the hunters were dead, he got up and hurried down the alley. Despite his earlier intentions, he had gone quite deep into Wyoming. Now, he was paying the price.

He pressed his back against a wall as he heard two sets of hasty footsteps making their way towards his direction. He took out two kitchen knifes from his backpack and readied himself. He knew that they were running close to the wall, and had every intention of turning.

So when they appeared, he immediately shot out his hands and stabbed both of them at random places. He stabbed one, with luck, right in the neck, whereas the other one was stabbed in the shoulder. Due to that, he was incapacitated, which gave Joel an easy time finishing him off with another stab at the neck. He could hear them gurgling, desperately trying to get air into their lungs, but failing to do so. He ignored their twitching bodies and the blood spilling out of their throats and sprinted across the street to the next shop.

He sighed in annoyance and irritation when he heard more voices. Can't he just get a break for one fucking moment? Every single place he goes to, there would be a fucking hunter. He checked his gun, and reprimanded himself for forgetting to retrieve the pistols the previous hunters had held. His brain wasn't functioning well, he tried to reason, due to the insufficient amount of nourishment he had gotten. Just enough to fight, but not enough to think properly and efficiently.

His eyes caught sight of a hunter running across the street twenty meters to his left, and took aim, his arms steady, his breathing even, before firing. The bullet hit the hunter straight in the head.

He could have ignored the hunter, but at that moment, the more he killed, the better. The city was teeming with hunters. So many that stealth would hardly be enough for him to escape all the way.

Or maybe it was just because he hated them. He couldn't be bothered to think which reason it was.

He stood up and swiftly ran into another shop as he heard more voices, ducking behind what seemed like a suitable hiding spot, preparing for more battle.

His eyes widened when he heard gunshots echo from the outskirts of the city. It seemed like the hunters had found a new enemy, and Joel immediately knew who it was.

"Tommy." He told himself under his breath, and the sense of urgency in him increased drastically. No matter how strong his brother's force was, he knew that they were still outnumbered. He sprinted out of the shop and saw the backs of many hunters who were currently running towards the outskirts, not even noticing his presence.

He took a quick glance up and saw that the sun was already setting. Pretty soon, it would be dark, and since it was winter…he didn't particularly like the idea of it.

Joel sprinted after them cautiously, but quickly nevertheless. He knew that most of them would probably be too focused on the battle raging on the outskirts to notice him, but he could never be too careful.

* * *

"Hey, hey, Ellie. Wake up." A muffled voice coaxed her as a hand shook her body gently. She groaned, slowly opening her eyes and rubbing them as she sat up slowly. Her neck ached, as well as some other parts of her body, probably due to her awkward sleeping position.

She frowned as she tried to recall why she had been asleep on the floor, and Joel's room, no less. All the memories hit her like a tidal wave when her eyes caught sight of the recorder that was being held tightly by her fist. Her emotions, once again, shook her entire being, but she managed to push it down, determined not to break down again.

She looked at the person who had woke her up, and saw that it was Robert. Robert was a twenty-eight year old man, married and with a two year old baby girl. She felt worried when she saw his face, which was all scrunched up with hastiness as well as …guilt?

"What is it?" She asked questioningly, tilting her head slightly to the side in curiosity. He seemed to battle with himself for moment, and let out a sigh of resignation.

"Fuck this…" He cursed, and then straightened up and looked at her directly in the eye, his face serious, his eyes weary.

"Ellie, I came here to tell you the truth. Tommy won't like it, but fuck it if I don't tell you this. I may regret it for the rest of my life if Joel doesn't come back…" He trailed off. Ellie's entire being perked up at the mention of Joel's name, and her alertness spiked up to maximum.

"What? If he doesn't come back? Has he gone somewhere?" She asked worriedly. He paused for a moment, but after receiving Ellie's frightening, glare, he gave in.

"Ellie, Joel never came back from finding you. It has already been three days. Tommy found out where he was three to four hours ago, and is currently trying to recover him." He said in a cautious tone, wary of how Ellie would react.

Her reaction was way out of his imagination. Instead of going into a fit about them lying to her, she simply stood still, her eyes wide and dazed, her face showing shock and disbelief at that statement.

"He…come…hasn't…what?" She couldn't complete a sentence. Tommy had lied to her. He fucking _lied_ to her about finding Joel. Joel had never came back. He was still out there, still surviving. Or was he? He may have already died from the cold, or gotten killed by some wild animal, or shot by some hunter, or-

Possibility after possibility ran through her mind, each one scarier, each one more terrible than the previous one.

"No…he can't…he cannot die…not before…I-I need to talk to him first…" She stammered, tears prickling her eyes. The very thought of Joel dying…

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" She cursed, each word louder than the previous one. She shook her head violently, rubbing the tears away, scolding herself. It wasn't the time to be all fearful, sentimental and weak. She needed to talk to him, and to ensure that she would have the chance, she would have to find him first.

"Where?" She asked Robert. When he hesitated, she gritted her teeth and clenched her fist, holding back the urge to punch him hard in the face.

"I asked," She growled menacingly, glaring daggers at Robert. "Where is he?" Robert shivered involuntarily as he felt the atmosphere explode with malice.

"W-wyoming city. They're there now. H-heard that there's a gunfight." He stuttered, his fear getting the best of him. She nodded, saying a quick 'thanks' before leaving the room. Once she left, he cursed softly.

"Man, she's becoming more like Joel. That killer glare, and even that animalistic growl…sheesh." He said, wiping the cold sweat on his forehead as he tried to calm himself down.

Ellie, on the other hand, immediately went to take her backpack, which was always packed and ready to go. She then left the house and made her way towards the horse ranch hastily.

"Don't you dare die on me," She muttered, her eyes looking straight on with determination, her voice filled with purpose. "Don't you dare die on me yet, Joel."


	11. Battle

**Hi guys! I'm sorry for being so late in updating! I'm REALLY busy with upcoming exams and tests nowadays, so bear with me! **

**I know that my fight scenes aren't that good. I told you guys (or did I) That I'm leaning towards the emotional writing type, so yea, sorry bout that. I hope you like the last part though.**

**IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT MUST READ MUST READ**

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**IMPORTANT**

**This will be the last second chapter of the story "Their story" I'm really thankful about all the followers, reviewers, readers...pracitclaly everyone that bothered to read this story!**

**There is something I'd like to tell you, but that will give things away for what will be revealed in the next chapter, so i will only say it on the next chapter. **

**I hope you'd review on this chapter. I really liked to write the last part HAHA though i don't know whether it's good or not. I'm not gonna giveaway whether it'll be a happy or sad ending, so keep your imaginations up, yea.**

**I'd also like to have some suggestions of any other type of story u guys want me to write? I don't know, but i love writing, that much i know, so i'd be happy to satisfy your hunger for 'books' of your imagination :)**

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* * *

"Go to hell!" Tommy yelled as he took aim and shot a hunter in the face. The bullet ripped through his skull, causing blood to splatter all over the place. Tommy quickly ducked below the window as a bullet ricocheted off the wall behind him a split second later.

They had decided to sneak in so that they could take the hunters in surprise and hopefully avoid any intense fight. Unfortunately, due to carelessness and a lack of planning beforehand about where to hide, they had been spotted before they even reached the first row of house. Needless to say, they had completely failed their objective.

He glanced to the left and saw Maria shooting at someone from another window before swiftly ducking back down. He gritted his teeth in frustration.

He didn't even know whether Joel was safe. And, the longer they remained, the more time Ellie had to find out that he had lied to her about Joel.

He wasn't particularly afraid of Ellie, since he had met worse- the worst being his own older brother- but boy did he want to avoid a confrontation with her. From what he had heard about her, she was a really fierce and independent girl, with a hard exterior but soft interior.

He begged to differ. Once, some guy had tried to play a prank on her, despite being in his twenties already. Unfortunately, the prank did not work very well for Ellie, and Ellie got really pissed. She had went up to the guy and punched him in the face, almost breaking his nose in the process.

Fortunately, she had the self-control to turn around and just walk away, leaving the whimpering guy behind. And all that just because of a prank. He didn't want to know how she would react to something this big and this important to her.

He shook his head violently, breaking his on train of thoughts. It was not the time to be daydreaming about her. He had to deal with Joel first, then with her.

He noticed that the amount of gunshots heard outside had considerably lessened. It was either good or bad news. The good news would be that the hunters had been reduced greatly in numbers. The bad news would be that his own guys had been killed.

He decided to take the risk and, as fast as lightning, peeked up from his window before ducking back down. Even though it was an extremely short amount of time, his sharp eyes had managed to catch a glimpse of most of the surroundings. He let out a weary sigh.

He couldn't tell how many of his own guys were still alive, but what he _could _tell was that the number of hunters still trying to blow his head off had lessened.

His eyes widened when he heard one of the hunters shout, followed by a huge sense of relief and happiness. "Behind us! There's that fucking guy behind us! Get hi-" A hunter screamed desperately, and was cut short as the of a bullet shot echoed throughout the place. What's more, the shot had definitely not came from his side. It had came from behind the hunters. He grinned at that.

"That's my brother." He whispered, pleased to know that Joel was alive and kicking. But the smile dropped from his face as fast as it came when he thought about how much danger Joel was in.

"We need to be quick." He told Maria, raising his voice a little so that she could hear him through the gunshots and shouts all over the place. She nodded.

"Yea. There's only two more at the house opposite us. After that, we can sprint across and occupy it." She informed him. He nodded and held his pistol ready.

Maria signaled with her hand. One, two.

Simultaneously, they both shot up, took aim, Maria at the hunter on the right, him at the hunter on the left, and fired. Their bullets hit straight at where they were intended to hit.

"Quick, let's go! While the other hunters are busy!" She coaxed. He nodded and jumped through the window, landing on the snow with a soft 'thud' before sprinting to the house. As he reached the door, he braced himself for the impact, used his speed to smash through the door. The door literally flew off its hinges into the house.

He immediately dodged to the side on instinct. Just on time too. There was a hunter who had been hiding inside the house, out of sight, and had taken a shot at Tommy just as he got into the house. The only thing that managed to save Tommy had been his survival instinct.

With speed and precision that could match up to a viper, he punched the hunter in the gut, grabbed the hunter's hand and twisted it, causing him to lose his grip on the gun. The gun clattered onto the floor, followed by the hunter's body with a loud 'thump' as Tommy stabbed a shiv into the man's neck before releasing his hold on him.

"Good job. Still have quite a long way to go though," Maria praised as she ran past him to the other side of the house, which was the kitchen, to cover the area. "Help me check if there are any more hunters hiding upstairs." Tommy nodded and readied his pistol, silently, carefully but swiftly climbing up the stairs.

"Nothing up here!" He shouted back at her after checking every single room. He heard more bullets being fired downstairs, and immediately rushed to the window facing the same direction as Maria was facing downstairs. He cursed and hid behind the wall as a bullet whizzed past his head.

There were even more hunters now, and he realized that they had been foolish to charge without telling the rest. They were surrounded unless his men had caught on quickly and made their move too. He rushed to a bedroom that faced the right, and carefully peaked through the window. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw his own men shooting at the hunters at the first floor of the house.

He rushed to the other side of the house, and his hopes rocketed up when he saw that his own men had overrun that house too. He mentally berated himself for doubting his own men. It wasn't their first time fighting together.

Fortunately or unfortunately, when he had crept back to the main hall on the second floor, his eye caught sight of something approaching the town from the woods. It was quite a clear view, since the houses at the outskirts of the city were not multi-story.

"Shit." He muttered as he identified that figure as a very enraged Ellie riding her horse. He could almost feel the anger radiating from her, even from the distance between them.

Just then, he heard Maria gasp in pain downstairs, causing worry and panic to flood into him.

"Maria!" He shouted as he rushed back down. When he reached, his heart skipped a beat. She was leaning against the wall, her right arm gripping her left shoulder, and he could see the blood seeping into the cloth.

"Fuck!" He cursed softly, dashing towards her and slamming his back against the wall before any hunters could take a shot at him.

"How are you?" He asked as he looked at Maria worriedly. Maria gritted her teeth in pain, trying to hold back the urge to black out.

"Bullet grazed my shoulder, but wound's quite deep. Won't be able to shoot with that arm now." She told him.

"You rest here, then. I'll try to find some rags and alcohol to treat your wound and stop the bleeding. But, first, you're coming with me upstairs." He said, pulling her uninjured arm over his neck and partially carrying her weight. He then tried to think of a way to get her upstairs safely, without getting shot by any hunters outside.

Just the, Ellie appeared at the door, with her no-nonsense face and her pistol on her hand, pointing in front of her. When she saw him, her eyes widened, and she looked like she was actually going to shoot him with that pistol of hers.

"Ellie, later. I need you to cover us as I bring her upstairs. It's safer up there. Can you cover us?" He asked her, feeling Maria's breath growing more ragged by the second. When Ellie saw Maria and her bleeding arm, she nodded and rushed forward, kneeling beside the window.

"Go!" She instructed as she stood up and fired at whatever she could see. Tommy immediately sprang into action, limping towards the stairs as fast as he could with Maria. A bullet hit a lamp to his right, and another one dug into the wall just beside his face as he left the kitchen.

"Tommy…" Maria muttered, but her voice was weak, and he could feel the strain she was giving her body just to relief some of the burden her body was causing on him.

"Soon. Soon, hang on." He grunted as he climbed up the stairs. For the moment, Ellie and Joel were not even important. What was important was the life of his wife.

* * *

"Why the hell are there so many hunters?" Ellie asked herself as she ducked back down, but not before shooting another hunter down.

It was as though there was a limitless amount of hunters. Everywhere she glanced at whenever she peaked up to observe the surrounding area, there were at least two hunters ready to blow her head off.

Uncertainty and worry started to invade her heart. There were so many…and Joel was fighting alone at the back of this horde of Hunter. The probability of him surviving this whole ordeal…was close to zero…

She shook her head vigorously and tried to convince herself that Joel would be able to survive. He had gone through so much. Surely he was experienced enough to handle the hunters, right? And it wasn't like she didn't know how good he was. He was really good, maybe even the best she had seen so far.

Still, that didn't stop her from worrying, didn't stop the fear from creeping into her soul. If Joel died…she would be alone. Her darkest fear, her nightmare.

Long ago, she had said, in an argument with Joel in a house just a mile away from where she currently was, she had said that everyone she had cared for had either left her or died. Everyone, except him.

Those words still held the absolute truth in them.

"I have to get to him. This is too slow…" She muttered to herself. She took out a nail bomb-Joel had taught her how to make one- and threw it at the house opposite hers. She heard shouts of surprise, followed by a loud explosion. She slowly peeked up at the opposite house, and saw that it was clear. The other hunters were currently too busy dealing with Tommy's men to even notice her.

Making a split-second decision, she lifted herself through the window and dashed to the next house. Since she wasn't as large or as strong as the men, she didn't try to barge in through the door. Instead, she lifted herself through the window again to get in.

She could hear gunshots are the opposite side of the battlefield. Elation and relief filled her body as she realized that Joel was still fighting, then followed the usual worry and fear. That only spurred her on, filling her with more adrenaline as she sprinted across the house and, seeing that the road was more or less empty for some reason, wasted no time to run into one of the shops located at the sides of the road.

She held her breath as she heard two sets of footsteps running towards the store she was in from the back alley. She pointed her gun at the back door, preparing to shoot anyone that came into it. Luckily, the hunters ignored the back door and ran right past it, thinking that no one had been able to break their line of defense yet.

That made her job no easier. Although she did not have to go into any gun battles if she kept out of sight, keeping out of sight was the main problem. The place was filled to the brim with hunters. She would have a hard time getting past them to Joel without being spotted or detected.

"Here we go." She said under her breath as she slowly opened the back door, crept out and hid behind a dumpster, listening like a bat for any movements before taking any action.

* * *

He could hear the screams of pain, the panicked shouts, the unforgiving gunshots at the other side of the battlefield, and he gritted his teeth in frustration as he thought about how far they were.

He had tried to distract and stealthily kill some hunters so that they wouldn't overwhelm Tommy's forces in numbers, but he had failed to consider his own safety routes. For the past few minutes, he had encountered hunters one after another without stop. The one he was currently punching the life out of was already the sixteenth hunter he had met.

He grunted as he gave a final, especially hard punch in the gut before whipping out his pistol and shooting the hunter that had appeared at the window. The hunter fell to the ground, dead with a bullet through his head.

After all, Joel had twenty years of experience on how to do headshots in a split second. It came as a very useful skill.

He crawled towards the entrance of the house, listening for any sounds, before opening it and sprinting across the road into the Walmart.

He had almost forgotten how big a walmart was, considering he had never bothered to enter one again after the apocalypse. Memories of the past struck him like a bolt. Him shopping for Sarah's diapers, laughing with his wife as they shopped for groceries, getting the cram for Sarah…

"Concentrate." He growled to himself, leaning against one of the many shelves in the mart. He couldn't hear any footsteps anywhere, but he knew that there were hunters hiding all over the mart, waiting to ambush anyone that came by.

He stopped moving abruptly as he heard a heavy breathing coming from the opposite side of the shelf.. He was at the end, and knew that the hunter was probably waiting for a unsuspecting victim to walk past. He quietly kept his gun, and took out his shiv from his backpack. What the hunter wasn't expecting was for the 'victim' to know that he was there, waiting.

As fast as lightining, Joel stood up and made himself visible in front of the enemy. The hunter didn't even have the time to lift up his own knife as Joel plunged the shiv into the side of the hunter's neck, effectively disabling his voice as well as killing him.

Joel's eyes caught sight of another hunter taking aim at him, and jerked to the right, his hand moving to take his gun form his backpack. The bullet just missed him. Joel then took aim and fired. The hunter, obviously, was dead in the next three seconds.

Joel cursed as he heard alarmed voices all over the place. Well, at least he could hear them now. However, them running around and patrolling, trying to find him, made his job way harder.

After many minutes of crawling around, picking off hunter one by one, he finally managed to reach the other side of the mall. He realized that the mall was at the end of a long stretch of road, with many shops at the sidewalk. He could see the jungle from where he was, and he breathed a weary sigh. Finally.

Just then, he smelled something. Something acrid, heavy, and…burning? His eyes travelled across the landscape, and he spotted smoke rising out from one of the shops at the sidewalk, as well as two hunters sprinting away from it. He frowned he thought about why the hunters would set fire to a random shop for nothing. Tommy's men were still quite far away…

He stood corrected as he saw three men, who he recognized, hiding in the stores at the other end of the road, shooting at the fast-depleting hunters. He could tell that the hunters were close to being beaten. After all, most of them had came to fight him, and he hadn't left a single one alive.

His attention was drawn back to the building. He knew that one of the hunter's enemy was in there, which meant that it was Tommy's men. Usually, he wouldn't risk it, but something was urging him to go there, telling him that he _must _go there. That if he did not, he would regret it for life.

And so, deciding to trust what he puts the thoughts down to- instincts-, he sprinted across the road to the first shop.

* * *

Fire. Fire everywhere, licking every corner of the shop, it's fierce, orange glow lighting the place. And Ellie was frozen. Unable to move, unable to react. The heat radiated against her body, the smoke filled her nostrils, and the thoughts of what had happened a year ago filled her mind.

She was shivering. Shivering like a leaf, fear and panic driving her into a state where she could neither think nor move. Her surroundings- the heat, the glow, the fire- they all resembled that burning restaurant she had been trapped in with…with…

She knew she had to move, but she couldn't. her arms stayed rooted to her sides, her feet stuck to the ground as though they had roots deep into it. She took a step back, and another, and another, until her back hit the wall, and she slid down.

Her eyes were wide, her mouth open, her face contorted with so many emotions that she could not pinpoint which was the dominant one. Was it fear? Or was it the panic? Was it the disgust, or the hopelessness?

She had managed to bury the memories of…that incident deep into the recesses of her mind for the past few months. The events that had happened were too dreadful, too horrible, and too terrible for her to bear. She had been traumatized for the next three months before she was able to somewhat get over it and start talking to Joel again.

The shop was starting to collapse, the fire was starting to eat up the place. All around her were flames. Flames, everywhere.

She was then brought back to the snowy village, the burning restaurant, the approaching figure of David stalking up to her, with his evil, maniacal voice and laughter, threatening to rape her. There was no escaping this time. No Joel to save her. Nothing to save her from him. She was about to be raped, then to be killed.

"Get away from me!" She screamed at the dark figure approaching her, the background filled with red hot flames. "Go away! Don't touch me!" She was hyperventilating now, her legs dragging against the floor as she tried to push herself deeper into the wall behind her, as though it would give way.

"Fuck! No! GO AWAY!" She screamed at the figure. The ceiling was about to collapse any moment, but she took no notice. Neither did she notice the figure rushing up to the door, nor did she notice the figure barging through the flames that surrounded her and embracing her entire body. She fought against the person, thrashing and squirming wildly.

She had finally been caught by David. His mangled face smiling at her with a sinister grin, blood dripping from his crooked jaw as his lips were already rotten with white fungus all over them.

_"You're mine, Ellie."_ His crazed, sadistic voice filled her mind. Tears fell from her face as she fought desperately, doing everything she could.

She did not hear Joel shout for her to stop, nor did she notice it when her body was thrown out into the open. All that she knew was the hopelessness and despair in her heart, and the insane laughter of David coming from the cold, black, endless pit her mind was falling into.

* * *

When he had heard Ellie scream, the words she were screaming, he knew what she was seeing.

David. It had always been David. That fucking insane, sick bastard who had caused her countless nightmares. She had not said anything to him, but he had guessed, through the mutterings, groans and torturing fearfulness that was evident in her voice, that she had experienced something extremely unforgivable as well as vile and nefarious from David during her time at the burning restaurant.

He had rushed in, embracing her, trying to comfort her, to console her, to assure her, muttering, "I'm here, I'm here, baby girl." But she couldn't seem to hear, she couldn't seem to see him. Her eyes had been glassy, and wild. She had thrashed against him, like a crazed infected. That had scared him.

It scared him to see what he knew as the strongest girl he had ever seen be reduced to such a weak, quivering mess. Her eyes were red from the crying, her face was wet from the tears, her body was covered in soot.

He then heard a loud noise, a noise of something breaking apart, and when he had looked up, he had seen that the ceiling was about to give way. Hence he carried her, planning to rush out before the ceiling collapsed on them.

Unfortunately, Ellie had struggled so violently, he could not carry her properly, and he was slowed down immensely. He had shouted for her to stop, but, as before, she couldn't seem to hear him.

And so, when he heard the ceiling finally give way, he thought _"I'm never gonna let another daughter die." _And used all his strength to throw her out of the shop.

Then, the ceiling collapsed.

Everything went black.

The flames burned.


	12. The End

**YO GUYS! Sorry for the late update! This is by far the longest chapter i wrote HAHA**

**Anyway, this is the final chapter of this story :) AT LEAST, FOR THE MAIN PLOT! **

**TELL ME IF YOU WANT ME TO WRITE AN EPILOGUE, THOUGH I THINK THIS IS ALREADY AN EPILOGUE.**

**I'm also planning to write more chapters in this story, but it won't be "canon". SO please don't think it's over just yet. **

**THANKS FOR ALL THE REVIEWS! PLEASE REVIEW YEA? HAHA!**

* * *

_ "No…no…i-it can't be…" Ellie stammered, falling to her knees in front of a human body. A charred, blackened and almost unrecognizable body. The fire had done its job well. Fires were meant to burn or cook things, and it had certainly cooked this body. _

_ Tears spilled from her eyes as her whole body quivered like a leaf. Sobs escaped from her mouth as she stared, wide-eyed, at the body that belonged to Joel in disbelief._

_ "Why? Why? WHY?" She screamed repeatedly, going into hysteria, grief crushing down on her mercilessly, guilt crawling and overwhelming her heart like what millions of ants would do to a food, loneliness echoing in her soul._

_ And most of all, regret. It was rampant, it was everywhere. It filled her mind, it filled her soul, it filled her entire being. She couldn't push it away, she couldn't' stop it. It was like a huge, invincible bowling ball tearing through her emotional well-being, causing her to sob and cry and go into a frenzy. _

_ He had died for her. He had sacrificed himself for her. He had thrown himself into the fiery inferno, held her and consoled her, like a father for a daughter. And finally, with all his effort, he had thrown her out of the hell she was experiencing, and he had died saving her._

_ And he had died thinking she still hated him. He had died thinking that she would never forgive him. He had died thinking that his most precious thing thought of him as a heartless monster. He had thought that the girl he considered as his own daughter wanted him dead._

_ And the worst thing was that she could remember. Even though it had been vague, she could remember certain details about when she was in the prison of her own nightmares. With David stalking her, a dreadful, horrifying ghost from the past. She could remember struggling frantically, with all her might, against what she now knew was Joel. She had been the reason why they couldn't both get out in time. It was her fault Joel had died._

_ She had not even said a word to him. She had not even said sorry, had not even thanked him, had not even seen him since the time she ran from the town. He had done so much for her, and she had only returned the favor by running away, not even showing that she appreciated what he did, appreciated that he cared for her. Not even letting him know that she had forgiven him, and now, she had killed him. She had wanted to meet him again; she had thought she could meet him again._

_ And here he was, but not in the way she wanted to see him. She had imagined her reunion with him to be…well, she had expected to flare up at him, to release all her pent up emotions on him, and then try to make up with him. She had thought that after she talked to him, she would probably find a way to handle, and overcome the incident about the fireflies, and she would spend the rest of the days trying to live as peacefully as it could get with Joel._

_ She had not imagined him dying. She had not imagined him sacrificing himself to save her. She had definitely not imagined him to be dead when she saw him._

_ She had thought that she had time, which she had the chance to make up with Joel, with the person who cared for her the most out of everyone else._

_ But now, he's gone. Just…gone. His soul is gone, his body not even recognizable easily. Ellie's body shook more and more violently as the seconds passed, as her thoughts ran through her head one by one, each one finding something to regret about for Joel._

_ She could feel Tommy's, Maria's, as well as the remaining men of Tommy's eyes staring at her. She could feel the pity, feel the sympathy, and she hated it._

_ The sun was shining brightly now. Ash was floating around in the air, and the fire had died down on its own, finally done with its job. The smell of blood and smoke filled the air, but there was a slightly cool breeze that blew across the place, slowly driving away the smoke and ash. She could hear the leaves on the surrounding trees rustle gently. She could hear the birds chirping cheerfully, ignorant of the battle that had just took place._

_ And she hated all of that. Why was the surroundings so comfortable, so bright and happy? The birds should be mourning. The sun should be hidden. It should be raining, with thunder and lightning everywhere. The wind should be much more violent. _

_ Joel had died, and the world was so happy. Why, why were they so happy? Were they overjoyed that Joel had died? Was it because they had thought he deserved it? Was it because he had killed many innocents in cold blood in the past?_

_ That thought made her hate them even more, _

_ Suddenly, all the hate and anger and guilt drained away, leaving only a sense of weariness, a huge, gaping, empty hole in her heart, and the echoes of regret and sadness._

_ Her tears ran out, her sobs died down. She laid there, staring at the body that once held the soul of a man that she had started to consider a father. Even as the sun went down, and all but Tommy and Maria left to get back to the town, Ellie still laid there, her eyes lifeless, her heart shattered, her soul empty._

_ And stared._

_ And stared._

* * *

_At least now, nature knew that they should be sad. It had been a week since Joel died, and this was his funeral._

_ The skies were gloomy. Dark clouds travelled ominously overhead, and rain poured down as thunder shook the Earth and lightning lit the skies. The winds buffeted anything and everything with a staggering force. There were no birds chirping happily. No gentle breeze blowing. No bright and cheerful sunshine lighting up the place. It was a sad, dark occasion. _

_ But, only a few were there._

_ Tommy and Maria were there. So were Arthur and the few men who had went to fight the battle at Wyoming. Compared to the whole population of the town, it was a meager amount._

_ But Ellie knew that Joel would prefer it this way anyway. He was never the social type._

_ They had decided-with Ellie's consent, of course- that whatever remained of Joel's body be cremated. It was better than putting him in a casket. She didn't want to see his disfigured face, as it was a disgrace to whatever memory she held of him._

_ His ashes- white and powdery- was kept and stored in a small, wooden, plain brown urn. And it was placed in front of a tombstone, which had Joel's name carved on it. The words written below his name were chosen by herself._

_ "A Brave man, a strong protector, a selfless father" That was all she could think of that described him, from when they had first met to when it had all ended. _

_ It had started off with her thinking he was brave-brave to challenge all the infected, brave to go out of his safety zone to smuggle someone he didn't even know._

_ A strong protector. That he was. He had overcome almost everything that had gotten in his way, and more importantly, in her way. He had went forward and dealt with all the dangers more times than not when they were travelling. He was a strong, and a reliable protector. _

_ A selfless father. Even though no one commented on it, they knew that Ellie wrote those names because she had looked to Joel as a surrogate father. He had, in many ways, not acted as a normal dad, but he had the fatherly actions in his own way. And lastly, selfless. She had not said he was a selfless man, just a selfless father. She doubted he would have sacrificed his life for a random stranger._

_ But he had sacrificed himself for her, as a father to a daughter. _

_ The tears trickling down her cheek mingled with the raindrops that showered on her. No one said anything. It was a silent period of mourning. Mourning the loss of a great man._

_ To her, at least._

_ As she stared at the tombstone, the emotions came back. The emotions that had left her as an empty shell a week ago came rushing back like a tidal wave. So much strength. So much force. She could barely keep herself from going into another round of hysteria._

_ She had fallen to her knees, her hands slamming onto the hard, rough surface of the earth with so much force that her hand bled. Her shoulders shook as she sobbed quietly. Thunder boomed overhead, and lightning flashed across the dark sky. Even God was feeling the pain, even he was crying over the loss._

_ Memories flitted through her mind. Her meeting with Joel, the sewers, Tess, Bill, the forest, Sam and Henry, their first time at Tommy's, their journey to the university._

_ …David, the icy, cold period of time he was out, the time he had rushed back in, embraced her tightly and consoled her, and lastly, their time at the great salt lake city._

_ "He shouldn't have died…he…I never…Joel…" She muttered softly, her eyes tightly shut, her fists and jaws clenched as she tried to stop herself from sobbing._

_ "Fuck you, Joel…" She cursed him loudly, and lightning flashed as thunder boomed._

* * *

"Joel!" Ellie screamed, her hand shooting forward and grasping the air in front of her as she shot up from bed. She was sweating profusely, her light, grey t-shirt and her Bermuda drenched with sweat. She was panting, her eyes wide, her body shivering from the aftershock of the nightmare.

"It wasn't real. It wasn't real." She said out loud, trying to convince herself and slowly succeeding. Her breath calming down second by second, and her body stopped shaking. Her shoulders sagged as she took a deep breath and exhaled.

She looked out of the window, wondering what time it was. She could see the sun still rising from the east, only half-revealed. It's fluorescent, gentle rays lighting up the town beautifully. She could hear the birds chirping their usual morning tune as some of them flapped their winds leisurely, black silhouettes against the slowly brightening sky.

She was in their house. Hers and Joel's. And, to say the least, they had one of the best houses in the town. The room she was currently sleeping in was the highest room of the house, which was located at the third floor.

She shifted her legs off the bed, and winced as her whole body ached with that movement. She glanced at the clock, and groaned. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. It was only six-thirty in the morning. Stupid nightmare.

She got up and went to her wardrobe- a simple two meter high wooden cupboard.

Her wardrobe consisted of around eight to ten sets of clothes. They were all arranged in a manner that one set of clothing fit together perfectly. She took out the first set from the right- a faded blue polo shirt and a pair of slim jeans.

After spending about half an hour washing up, changing and fussing over her ponytail, she was ready to go.

"Made breakfast for you again." Maria pointed at the sandwiches on the table as she stood by the sink, washing some utensils. Ever since that incident, which had happened three months ago, Maria and Tommy had been treating her as well as they could.

"You didn't need to." She said quietly. "But thanks anyway." A small smile appeared on her face as she gave Maria a thankful look before approaching the table to pick up one of the sandwiches.

She wasn't particularly hungry. She had lost some weight over the months due to her small appetite, and had worked herself dead day and night throughout the months, but her body still maintained its shape and size.

She still had to eat though. For energy to go through another torturous day.

Maria sighed as Ellie chewed on her sandwich mechanically as her eyes turned into a look that told Maria that Ellie had once again dived into her own world, her own thoughts and opinions.

She had been doing that very often ever since the incident. She never smiled widely anymore. She never talked unless someone asked her a question, and even then, she would talk very quietly, very slowly. She always seemed to be far away, as though she didn't even notice anything around her, and didn't care.

"I'm going off now." Ellie quietly informed her.

"Take care…" Maria trailed off as she heard the door close before she could even finish her sentence. She turned away from her task and looked back. She had only eaten one out of the five sandwiches she had prepared for her.

She sighed and shook her head in sympathy.

She knew how losing a loved one felt like. But she had Tommy to help her.

Ellie had only one person, and that person was Joel. And that person wasn't able to help her now.

* * *

Ellie closed her eyes as she felt the soft breeze kiss her face, her arms andlegs. It was a pleasant feeling. To have the breeze blowing gently at you, to have the rays of sunlight giving shining at you, providing warmth in the cold winter.

Just that it wasn't winter anymore. Winter had ended about a week ago. The trees, whose leaves had withered away due to the snow, were starting to grow back its leaves to its previous state. It was spring.

She nodded at a passer-by who had greeted her with a wave and a 'good morning, Ellie." It's not that she wanted to be rude. It was just that she was too wrapped up in her own thoughts, and also that she hadn't really felt like being polite for a while.

Five minutes later, she found herself in front of a two-story white building. She was surprised when she saw it. She hadn't been planning to walk here. Not yet. But, somehow, her legs had unconsciously brought her here.

She shrugged as she walked into the building. Since she was already here, guess she'd just do what she always did.

"Hey Ellie." The receptionist greeted her. She nodded at him and walked past the counter without returning any sort of verbal greeting. She heard the receptionist sigh as she left him behind, but he sounded far away, as though he and her was separated by a thick, glass wall.

That's how she had felt like towards the rest of the wall for the past three months. Distant, withdrawn, solitary. No one could get her to have a light conversation. No one could get her to go out and have a rest from the work she did without stop. No one could get her to watch the movies that even the adults enjoyed.

The past three months had been one of the most dreadful times of her life. She would have many sleepless nights as she thought about Joel. She would work non-stop from before dawn to after midnight, patrolling, hunting for food, and tending to the crops and animals. She never stopped working; as to do so would mean that she would have to think about something. And she knew that her brain would automatically turn to Joel.

Only during the night times, when she went to visit Joel, would be her break times. Only then were the times she would be able to stop working, and to start talking.

The door creaked as she pushed it open, revealing a somewhat large room. The curtains were drawn open, letting the sunlight enter and lighten up the room, making everything in the room- the polished wooden cupboard leaning against the side of the room, extremely rare medical equipment that stood beside a bed, and most of all, the bed in the middle of the room with its occupant- look like they're shining and emitting their own gentle light.

The steady 'beep' emitted by the strange machine echoed throughout the sparse room as she closed the door behind her. As usual, the room felt eerie, and yet it comforted her at the same time. Eerie because of how quiet the place was, with only the steady 'beep', and comforting because of the deep breathing, the presence of the person that lay in the bed, with a few wires attached to different parts of his body.

"Joel. I'm here early today," She whispered as she sat down on a cushioned chair by his bed. He responded as he always did- with no reaction. His eyes remained closed, his breathing remained deep and even, his face remained motionless as ever.

She exhaled wearily. It had been three months since had went into coma.

She didn't know if it was just luck God's will, but it had immediately started raining a few seconds after Joel had been buried under the debris. The rain had extinguished the fire rather quickly, and Tommy and his men had finished off the last of the hunters quickly as they spotted the building collapsing.

Joel had suffered multiple burns all across his body. His legs and an arm were crushed, and he had several deep gashes and cuts all over his body. It had been a terrifying nightmare for that period of time.

When Tommy and his men cleared the debris and pulled Joel out, she had already recovered enough to think rationally, and when she saw his mangled body, her hand had flew up to her mouth, her eyes had widened into humongous, large saucer-like shapes, and tears had fallen within seconds.

Blood was literally flowing from everywhere around his body. His body was limp and crushed. He looked worse than he did during the last winter.

Then came the memories. They rushed in violently, unstoppably, She had broke down like nothing else. She had cried like never before, shouting his name as Tommy and his men carried him towards their horses in the jungle and rushed back to the town.

They had attached that medical stuff onto him, strange looking equipment that she had never seen before in her life. She had watched as they tended to his body hastily, carefully but swiftly, wrapping his body in bandages, applying medicine onto the angry looking red welts and pus all over his body.

After all that, they had brought him into the very room she was currently in, placed him on the bed and told her that he was in coma. When she had asked, desperately, when he would wake up, they told her that they didn't know.

Ever since then, she had visited everyday, hoping he would be awake. Hoping he would open his eyes and look at her with his usual gruff but somewhat warm look.

But, after each day, her hope slowly diminished bit by bit, as each day she visited, he never woke up. He never moved an inch when she was there.

After three months, his body had recovered well. More than well, actually. Even Tommy was awed by the amazing rate his body was recovering. His broken bones were already almost completely healed. His cuts and gashes had all sealed up, and his burns-most of them minor- had almost completely disappeared. There were only around three to four patches that would certainly leave scars.

"Joel…Y'know, we found another movie yesterday?" She started. She always talked to him, even though she knew he couldn't hear her. He was the only person she was comfortable to talk to. It was ironic. The only person she was comfortable to make a conversation with, and he himself couldn't reply. "It's called Despicable Me. Something about yellow creatures and a man with three daughters."

She sighed. "Have you ever watched it before? Maybe with Sarah? I'm pretty sure it was made before the infection," She breathed out deeply. "They're watching it tonight. I don't think I'm gonna join them."

She smiled shakily, trying to restrain her tears, but they fell anyway. Her smile was still intact though. She spoke in a watery voice. "I got another nightmare again, Joel. It was horrible." She whispered. "You were...you were dead. Not breathing. Your eyes were lifeless, your body was charred beyond recognition. It felt so real…"

"Joel…I don't think I'd be able to leave this room today," She chuckled weakly. "Last time, I would be itching to move, but now…I can't handle it. I need to know that you're still alive." She was finally giving in to the emotions that she had been holding back since the nightmare.

"I know that I've said this over a hundred times, but Joel, I'm sorry," She spoke the words out, her voice filled with fear and grief. "Please, I need you to wake up. I need you to. I don't know how much longer I can survive with these nightmares." She pleaded, her hands now clenching one of his limp, large, rough hands tightly. No response. No twitch, no movement, no nothing.

She put her head down onto his covered chest- his body was covered from toe to neck with a blanket- and closed her eyes, just managing to halt the flow of tears.

She buried her face into the blanket, the tears on her cheeks absorbed by it, making it slightly wet.

"I'm afraid, Joel," She spoke into the blanket, her voice muffled. "I'm scared of being left alone again. You better not die."

She felt the steady, strong heartbeat on his chest. She felt the steady rise and fall as he breathed in and out. She felt the sturdy chest that he had used to keep her safe so many times, that he had held her close to as he comforted her.

All those made her relax, made her feel…well, made her feel _not_ alone. It was strange. The whole town had supported her, comforted her, tried to talk to her, but the only person that could actually make her feel that she was not alone was him.

He had grown in on her that much, huh.

She closed her eyes, and basked in the knowledge that he was still alive, basked in his presence.

* * *

"Shit, I fell asleep." She muttered as she blinked blearily. She lifted her face from the blanket, and cursed as she saw the dark spot on the blanket. She had drooled on his blanket. Disgusting.

She looked outside and saw that it was already night time. The sun was nowhere to be seen. She gawked at the sunless sky.

"What the fuck? I was here for so long? What time is it exactly?" She exclaimed in utter astonishment, shooting up from her chair.

She had slept the whole day. That meant that she had missed what she was supposed to do. She frowned. The receptionist should have woken her up, as Tommy would have surely looked for her here.

Unfortunately, no matter how much she wanted to stay right now, she still had to bathe, and her sense of responsibility was weighing down on her so much. She had to apologise to Tommy first, then she would return.

She looked at Joel again, and sighed sadly, disappointedly. Nothing had changed. She turned around and took heavy, draggy steps towards the door. She was silently pleading to the lord, as she did so many times before, that a voice would stop her from walking. Would call her name. Would make her stop in her tracks.

It was an irrational hope, but she still hoped against hope that that would happen. It never did, but the hope, the want for it to happen never diminished. And that's why the grief and disappointment never got any lesser either. Instead, it seemed to get worse by the day.

She closed her eyes as she took the final step to the door. Still no sound but the 'beep' that she had loved and hated at the same time.

She opened the door slowly, the creaking echoing throughout the empty, dimly lit hallway. It would have crept her out, but she was still focusing on the sound in the room to notice that. Still no sound but the 'beep'.

She exhaled, the disappointment now extremely heavy in her breath. She closed her eyes, held back a tear, took a step forward, and started to close the door. The hope that she held already converting into the usual grief and disappointment and weariness. And the memories of the nightmare did nothing to help.

Then she heard it. A movement. A shift somewhere behind her. No normal person would be able to hear it, but she had trained her ears to be as sharp as a bat, and she heard it.

It had came from the bed.

She didn't dare to turn. She didn't dare to hope, and yet it was already storming back into her heart. Could it be? After so long, after so much hoping, grief, regret, disappointment, loneliness, fear, and a ton of other emotions?

Her feet were rooted to the ground. Her shoulders were tensed, and her eyes were shut tightly. She tried to push back down the hope, as she knew that it would only turn into even more intense disappointment.

Then she heard his voice, the voice she had so dearly missed for so long. It held the usual coldness and toughness, but she could identify the underlying kindness and warmth that was directed only to her.

"Ellie." His weak yet sturdy voice carried out of the room.

And her feelings took over, washed over her. Her shoulders shook uncontrollably, her tears flowed like a river, and her sobs escaped her mouth forcibly.

She turned, opened the door, and saw him looking at her, his eyes open, his body already getting up slowly. Her eyes met his, and she couldn't stop the smile that forced itself onto her face.

She had imagined a million scenarios about how things would happen, about how she would react when he finally woke up, finally called her name. but now, she couldn't react properly, couldn't say the things she had wanted to say to him for a long, long time.

And so, all she could say, with a shaky voice filled with relief and joy, was:

"What took you so long, Joel?"


	13. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

"When will you be able to be properly discharged?" Ellie asked, setting down the tray of food on the table by Joel's bedside. It consisted of steaming white rice, some braised duck meat and vegetable- plus a bowl of smoking hot soup. His breakfast.

It was nine in the morning. Two weeks had passed since Joel had woken up. Tommy and the rest of the people who went to rescue him were thoroughly relieved when they found out about it. Tommy himself was quite overjoyed, though he had tried not to show it.

Joel shrugged. "I don't know…around a week or two?" He guessed, and then his face darkened. "I actually want to get out now, but Tommy and the rest keep on telling me to stay in bed till I'm fully recovered." His voice was filled with irritation.

"Well, I agree with them," She said. He glared at her. "You really should recover fully before moving anywhere." She said, ignoring his glare. He grunted in exasperation.

"I've suffered more injuries in the past, and was still able to move and do what I needed to do," He said gruffly, reaching for the spoon that lay on the tray. "I hate sitting here like some weak, handicapped old sot." Ellie chuckled, and it turned into full-blown laughter as her imagination brought forth some extremely weird images.

Joel stared at her weirdly. She held her stomach and tried to halt her laughter. It only managed to stop a minute later. "Sorry," She said between snickers. "Was just imagining you like a _real _old sot. Y'know, with white, stringy hair and arms and legs like sticks." She said, her hands waving everywhere as she tried to portray to him.

He glared daggers at her, but then turned away in less than five seconds and started to dig in, choosing to respond by not responding. Ellie didn't care about that- he had done that many times before.

They went into a comfortable silence, safe for the usual 'beep' emitted by the medical machine and the sound of Joel chewing and biting down on his meal. Ellie took out her "Savage Starlight" Comic and started reading it, her eyes scanning through each panel quickly.

"Which volume are you at already?" Joel asked out of nowhere. Ellie looked at him quizzically, but answered anyway.

"Volume eight. Almost done with it already, and there's a whole stash of the comic series in the Town's library." She said, but the tone in her voice made him frown.

"You don't sound too happy." He stated. It wasn't a question. He knew Ellie well enough to know that even though she tried to sound upbeat, she was somewhat saddened by something.

"Yea," She sighed, disappointment lacing her voice. "They have the rest of the volumes, but they don't have volume nine. Not even one!" She exclaimed, annoyance present in her voice.

Joel chuckled at her childlike antics, but stopped and frowned as he suddenly recalled something. A small smile rose up to his face as he thought about it.

"Ellie, bring my backpack here, would you?" He asked her. She nodded and went to the back of the room, took his backpack off the cupboard, and passed it to him. He rummaged through the contents inside, and his eyes brightened as he finally caught sight of it.

"How desperate are you for the next volume?" He asked. She looked at him, bewildered and caught off guard by his question.

"Very. Why do you ask?" She questioned, but she wasn't that dumb. Joel never asked something for nothing. Her hope started to rocket sky high as she saw his smile.

"It so happens that I found a certain volume before we reached the town." He hinted. Ellie's eyes widened as he pulled out a weathered comic book. She could see the faded words and numbers "Savage Starlight-volume 9" printed on the cover.

"Holy shit, Joel!" she exclaimed, snatching the comic book out of his hands and holding it like it was a platinum trophy she had just gotten from some president. She examined it with sharp, observant eyes, disbelief and astonishment evident on her face.

"Damn, it's the real thing!" She proclaimed as she flipped through the pages, her eyes taking in the images at a million miles per hour.

"I won't gain anything lying to you." He replied. He immediately stiffened up after that. Ellie, sensing his shift, tensed up too. The atmosphere suddenly shifted into a tense and awkward one. The surrounding temperature seemed to drop to below zero degrees.

For a few seconds, they sat in silence. Joel had stopped eating, and was staring at the blanket that covered half his body, mentally berating himself over his mistake. Ellie, on the other hand, was closing her eyes, trying to pluck up the courage to speak up her mind.

"Joel," She finally started. "I've been meaning to talk to you abou-" She was cut short as Joel lifted up his hand, signaling for her to stop.

"No, it's me who has to say something to you." He said, shaking his head and then looking at her straight in the eyes. There, she saw something she thought she would never see in his eyes.

Fear, fear of rejection. And also…uncertainty? They certainly weren't things anyone would ever see from the seemingly tough, invincible Joel.

"I have to apologize for lying to you about the fireflies." He started. Ellie went quiet. It was still a sore spot, and even though she had already forgiven Joel, she still felt sad and guilty whenever she thought about it.

"I…really don't know what to say. Just, sorry. I didn't want to lie." He said it awkwardly. He really didn't know what to say, how to say it. He had always been taciturn. How could he express his feelings to her so openly?

Luckily, Ellie noticed his obvious discomfort, and decided to cut him some slack. She had known that Joel would never be able to tell her what he wanted to say in front of her.

"Joel," She said, catching his attention. "You…don't have to say anything. I…heard the recorded message you made. You explained enough on it." She informed him. His eyes widened in shock and surprise, and then he went silent, lost for words.

She knew about how he saw her. She was conscious about what she was to her. She knew that Marlene had wanted to kill her.

"Look, Joel," She sighed wearily. He looked at her warily, afraid of what she would say. Worry was already raging in him like a berserk monster, and the fear of her rejecting him was rampant. "Let's just act as though it never happened, alright? Let's just act as though you and I went on an adventure, and because of you, we're here safely." She suggested, her tired eyes meeting his surprised ones.

She wanted to thank him. She wanted to hug him and say that she didn't blame him. But, the both of them were not very good with words, and she didn't trust herself to be able to say everything that she wanted to say.

She just hoped that with the proposal of leaving everything behind, Joel could sense what she was implying, could catch her silent hint that she had forgiven him, and was actually thanking him.

It was the last thing he was expecting to hear from here. He had expected her to throw a tantrum at him, hit him and scream at him, calling him a selfish fucker. Instead, she had already decided to forgive him.

But, after mulling over her words for the next few seconds, he caught the various hints that she was forgiving, and even thanking him. Internally, he breathed a humongous sigh of relief.

However, silence reigned in the room, as he didn't know how to reply without making things more awkward. Ellie could sense it, and decided to start her suggestion.

"Anyway," she said, her grin appearing back onto her face. "Really, I love this fucking book series. Thanks, Joel." She said sincerely.

Joel may have been anti-social and a loner, but he knew what Ellie was trying to do, and thought "Heck, if she's fine with it…I'm not complaining." So he decided to play along.

"No problem, baby girl." He said, and went back to eating as Ellie started to eagerly read finish volume eight, greatly looking forward and anticipating volume 9.

The atmosphere had lightened up considerably, and everything seemed to go back to normal now. Both occupants in the room not quite over the whole ordeal yet, but already succeeding in putting it in the back of their minds.

After what each of them had gone through for the past few months. With Ellie running away, with Joel almost dying, with everything, it seemed like the both of them finally decided that it wasn't worth harping over anymore.

And now, the final stage had come and gone. The confrontation about it was over. It wasn't how either of them had expected it to happen, but it had happened nonetheless, and they both felt immense relief that it was all over.

The sun shone into the room, brightening up the room with it's gentle rays of light as the fan rotated above the both of them, blowing at them with a cool, light wind. The leaves outside, on the tall, strong trees rustled with the breeze as birds chirped in their sing-song voices.

And the two people in the room, the two whom had hated each other at first, but had grown on each other so much till they couldn't live without the other, who had been at odds because of a lie, were finally at peace. One crunching his meal away and the other reading her book away in a comfortable silence.

Peace.

* * *

**AANNNDDD WE'RE DONE! HAHAHAHA **

**THANKS FOR ALL THE REVIEWS, THE FAVS, THE FOLLOWS, AND MOST OF ALL, THANKS FOR FOLLOWING AND STAYING WITH ME THROUGH THE WHOLE STORY YEA? HAHA!**

**I actually have something in plan. Like writing drabbles between the two. I'm wondering whether i should do it. do you guys want me to write them? Like for example, writing about Joel teaching Ellie how to swim and stuff like that? And, do you want me to write them in this story or write the drabbles in a whole 'nother story?**

**ANYWAY, THANKS FOR EVERYTHING! UNTIL YOU TELL ME WHETHER I SHOULD WRITE MORE DRABBLES, I WILL MARK THIS AS COMEPLETE! CYA GUYS! :D**

**SIGNING OFF~KUNTAKINTAE :D**


	14. Drabble 1

**HEYA READERS! BEEN A WHILE SINCE I UPDATED, YEA?**

**SORRY i still have exams going on, so this drabble is short. Actually, all the drabbles are short...haha :)**

**Anyway, pls R&R! leave a review for me to know what drabble you want me to do next I have some original ones, but i'll do yours too if you want!**

* * *

"Beat you again!" Ellie proclaimed smugly, her hand reaching out for a piece on the chessboard. "Checkmate." She grinned cheekily at the slightly miffed Joel, who had folded his arms and scowled at the chessboard.

"You got lucky." He grunted, his hands travelling across the board, picking up pieces and placing them at their original positions. Ellie rolled her eyes in exasperation.

"Yea, yea, like the past eight games we've played and I won, right?" She asked, sarcasm dripping in her voice. Joel let out a silent huff of annoyance.

"Again," He challenged, pointing at the once again arranged chessboard. "This time, you won't be so lucky." He added in a gruff voice.

"We'll see," She looked at him mischievously. "If I win this game, you're gonna have to walk to every house in town and tell them I'm better than you in chess."

"No." Joel's reply came instantly, firm and strong.

"Yes, you are so doing it." Ellie insisted, her voice filled with barely suppressed laughter.

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes, or are you afraid of losing this round?" Ellie asked triumphantly, finally deciding to use her trump card. Joel, seeing that he had foolishly let himself fall into her trap, glared daggers at her, but sighed resignedly a few seconds later.

"Fuck it." He cursed. "Whatever. What do I get if I win?" He questioned. Ellie's eyes looked up at the ceiling as she pondered, her index finger tapping the wooden table lightly, causing a soft, knocking sound to resonate in the room.

"I'll do whatever you tell me to do." She said nonchalantly, shrugging. Joel let out a small smirk as hundreds of nasty and embarrassing ideas flooded into his head like a river overflowing from it's banks.

Ellie immediately regretted what she had offered.

"You're gonna perform with your guitar in front of the whole town." Ellie's eyes widened in horror as she gasped at the terrible notion.

"Oh fucking hell no!" She shouted loud enough for their neighbours to hear them. Joel was trying excruciatingly hard -but failing- to keep the evil smirk from his face at her reaction. She glared fiercely at him, but to no avail. Joel's handled way worse than a glare from a fourteen-turning-fifteen year old girl's glare.

"It's fair." He stated, shrugging his broad shoulders. Ellie scowled, but brightened up a second later.

"Well, good thing I'd never lose to such an old geezer like you!" She shot back with a wide grin. His smirk slid off his face as he gave her a look of pure "hatred".

"Lets just get on with this shitty thing." He muttered darkly, reaching towards a piece on the board.

Ten minutes later, Joel was feeling as though he was on cloud nine. Ellie, on the other hand, felt like she was in cloud negative nine or something. A beter way of putting it was that she felt like she had been thrown into the pits of hell.

They could literally feel the tension in the air as Joel slowly, agonizingly slowly, moved what was his final move.

"Checkmate, baby girl. Looks like you lose." He said with a sadistic gleam in his eyes. Ellie stared at the chessboard incredulously, disbelief written all over her face.

The most important game of the day, and she just had to lose it.

"Fucking…mother…son of a…" She cursed under her breath angrily as she got up and went to the kitchen. Joel tried his hardest to restrain himself, but one small snicker managed to break free. He could hear Ellie muttering, cussing and swearing as she stomped around the place, smashing a plastic cup onto the table and pouring water into it.

He got up ad walked into the kitchen and found Ellie staring out of the window silently.

"What'cha thinking?" He asked, stepping beside her and letting the warmth provided by the sunrays wash against his skin. HE felt Ellie shift, and perked up, curious about her answer.

"I'm thinking of how fucking embarrassing it's gonna be when I play that guitar. Haven't even started learning yet…" She said with an irritated voice. Joel couldn't hold it in any longer, and gave a snort that actually sounded a little like genuine laughter.

Ellie's head snapped towards him, her face filled with surprise and shock. It was very rare that Joel would laugh freely, and the times that he did were few and far between, not to mention that the laugh would be often almost completely overshadowed by some other sound like a snort or a snicker.

"Sorry," he said after calming himself down. He realized what he just did, and his whole body stiffened. He cursed himself for letting his guard down. In a matter of seconds, he turned from the slightly jovial, laughing Joel that was rarely seen to the usual cold, aloof man that Ellie was so used to.

The atmosphere was tense and uncomfortable, neither having an inkling of what to say. Finally, Ellie couldn't stand it anymore, and grabbed Joel's sleeve. Joel looked at her in bewilderment, but cautiousness was present too. He was afraid of how she would react, what she would say.

Ellie struggled with her words, not sure how to put them out, not even sure what were the words. Any of them to ease the tension that was currently between them.

"Let's go get that stupid guitar. Gotta practice for the fucking performance." She muttered, letting go of Joel's sleeve and turning to walk out of the kitchen.

Joel didn't see the smile on Ellie's face, not did he notice that Ellie had noticed him give a genuine smile as she turned.


	15. Drabble 2

**Hi guys! It's been a really long while since i updated anything on this, huh? Sorry! Really!**

**I've been having, and still have exams these few weeks. They will be over next month, but till then, i won't have much time to write this. The only reason why i can write it now is cuz i don't have school for a week, but i still have CCAs and still need to go for extra lessons, so...HAHA**

**ANyway, i don't know much about guitars, so pardon my misinformation to anything, yea? **

**Also, please review so that i know people still read this HAHA anyway thanks for the reviews and stay awesome!**

**PLease R&R!**

**~kuntakintae**

* * *

"So, the G-chord is like this?" Ellie asked, her fingers pressing down on the strings. Joel shook his head.

"No, not right. Your index finger needs to go one string up." He told her. She frowned in concentration as she shifted her finger to the correct position. She looked up at Joel for confirmation. Joel nodded approvingly.

"Good. Try strumming it now then." Ellie licked her dry lips as she prepared to strum. Joel almost chuckled at how much concentration she was putting into just strumming one chord.

They both winced as she strummed. It sounded nothing like a G-chord at all.

"What the fuck man!" Ellie cursed, frustration building up inside her. They had already been at it for twenty minutes, and she was pretty sure that learning how to strum one chord did not take more than fifteen minutes. "I strummed it! My finger positioning is correct!" She exclaimed.

"No, your fingers went out of position when you strummed, and that's why it did not sound like a G-chord," Joel explained calmly. "Chill the hell down, Ellie. You still have three weeks till the performance, and it's your first time." He said in a soothing voice.

Ellie glared at the ground for a few more seconds before taking a deep breath and exhaling. "I just wish I could learn it faster than this. Its such a fucking downer that I can't even play a basic chord properly." She said with a weary sigh. Joel chuckled.

"I remember my first time trying out the guitar," He started. Ellie perked up curiously. "I got the hang of the basic chords in a week or so." Ellie's eyes widened.

"Only a week?" She asked incredulously. "There's like over ten basic chords!" Joel nodded.

"Just keep on practicing. Both you and I don't want you to make a fool of yourself in front of everyone." Joel encouraged her. Ellie's eyebrow twitched.

"Would you like me to remind you who the hell was the person who got me into this position in the first place?" She snidely remarked. Joel shrugged nonchalantly.

"It was your idea for a bet." He replied, short and to the point. Ellie couldn't find a reasonable retort, so she just huffed in annoyance went back to practicing her G-chord.

Another torturing sound came out of the guitar. Ellie groaned in frustration and gritted her teeth, trying not to flare up and smash the damn guitar into something.

She suddenly felt someone's hand on the one she was using to press down the strings. She looked up to see Joel looking down on with patient eyes.

"Calm down, okay?" He said. Ellie was momentarily stunned by his fatherly action. It lasted for ten seconds before he let go of her hand and went back to his seat.

"Try it again. Slowly. Don't rush it." Ellie closed her eyes and sighed. Her whole body, who had been tense for the past twenty minutes, slowly relaxed.

"Okay." She said to herself, carefully placing her fingers against the strings, making sure they were correct before raising her other hand to strum.

"Here goes fucking nothing." She muttered and strummed. Both their eyes widened when they heard the chord. It was extremely different from the rest of the times she had tried.

"…please tell me that was it." Ellie said, almost pleadingly even though she knew that wouldn't actually do anything at all. Joel was silent for a long while, so long that Ellie almost believed that Joel was thinking about what to say to comfort her.

All those guesses went down the drain when a small, approving, proud smile appeared on his gruff face. Ellie took around five seconds to register that he was smiling, then another ten seconds to succeed in saying out what she wanted to say audibly.

"It…was it finally…correct?" She asked tentatively, afraid that her hopes would be dashed. She could tell that Joel was purposely dragging his reply, trying to add to the urgency and intense atmosphere. He was, unfortunately, succeeding.

"Fuck, Joel!" She exclaimed after Joel stayed silent for another five seconds. "Just tell me already!" Joel let out a chuckle and nodded.

"Yes, yes. You got it right." He finally gave in. She couldn't help but spring out of her chair in happiness, punching her fist enthusiastically into the air. Despite all that, she remembered to hold her guitar.

"Fuck yea! Finally!" She shouted, pride twinkling in her eyes. Joel couldn't help but let out a wider, gentler smile that, if only considering the time before he met Ellie, had not appeared for twenty years.

He never thought he would be able to even form that kind of smile again. Then Ellie came, and he was proven wrong.

"C'mon. That was only once. Keep on practicing. One time isn't enough." Joel advised, signaling for her to calm down and sit back down. Ellie huffed in mild annoyance.

"Can't you just let me celebrate for a moment…" she muttered under her breath as she sat back down onto the chair and adjusted her position.

"You'll get to celebrate once you get it right all the time." Joel simply stated. Ellie glared at him and started to strum again.

For the rest of the strums, not all were successful, but at least none of them were as terrible as the ones before she got it right.

In the end, all Ellie managed to learn that day were only the E-minor, G and D chord. It was already near nine when they finally decided to stop. They had been in it for six hours.

"Man…never knew it would take so long to perfect just three chords…" Ellie commented as she went to sit at the dining table. They hadn't even taken their dinner yet.

"Well, I could have taught you more chords, but I want you to master these few first," He said in an explanatory tone as he brought two bowls of steaming soupy noodles form the kitchen to the table. "No use knowing so many but unable to play any properly." Ellie sighed.

"Well, I still feel like I'm going at a really slow pace. I bet people in the past learnt way more than me." She said, disappointment and sadness lacing her voice. Joel wondered how knowing people in the past learned guitar faster could make her more sad than knowing that she had killed someone. Still, they lived in a fucked up world. Almost everything was beyond common sense.

"Don't worry. You're not that slow. You're actually considered quite fast, seeing that you can already play two out of the three chords almost perfectly seven out of ten times." Joel informed her as he sat down opposite Ellie. Ellie took a whiff of the noodles, and an ecstatic grin lit up her face.

"Man, even after so long, I still can't get used to having all these warm, cooked, delicious food as our meals. I still remember when we were travelling together all those months ago…" Ellie trialed off, her eyes travelling to another time, when they had fought for their lives all the time, when they never had a proper place to sleep or proper food to eat.

Even though it had only been around a year ago, it felt like it had happened more than ten years ago.

"Well, when it was my time, these were considered unhealthy meals." Joel said as he picked up his fork and dug in to his food. Ellie's eyes widened in surprise as she heard his statement.

"What? Really?!"She asked, her voice filled with disbelief. Joel nodded as he quietly ate his food.

"What we considered good at that time was proper, well-prepared dishes like steak with fries and vegetables and mash potatoes. And we had a larger variety of food too. We had many types of gravis, flavourings…" He stopped eating as he suddenly recalled something.

"Thinking bout it, I bet you've never had ice-cream before." Ellie looked at him quizzically.

"Ice…cream?" She asked. Joel shook his head.

"Sorry. Forget bout it. It's impossible for me to get any ice-cream in this era." He stated. Ellie frowned in confusion, but nevertheless dug in to her food.

She wondered how could this piping hot, delicious, steaming bowl of noodles be considered unhealthy and one of the less-luxurious food in the past. It only succeeded in saddening her even more. It reminded her of how much she had not experienced, unlike Tommy and Joel. And there was this…ice cream.

"After you're done, take a shower and go to sleep. I can see that you're exhausted," Joel rose up his hand when he saw Ellie open her mouth to protest. "Don't argue back. I can see it as clear as day."

Ellie glanced at his face, and immediately knew that he wasn't taking no as an answer. She sighed resignedly and nodded, not bothering to say anything as she slurped on her noodles. Joel didn't need a vocal answer anyway.

Thirty minutes later, they were both residing in Ellie's room. Joel was sitting on a wooden chair and checking the guitar while Ellie lay down on the bed. Ellie's hair was still quite wet, but it wasn't as though she hadn't suffered worse before.

"What's the plan tomorrow?" Ellie asked curiously as she went through the box of "savage starlight" comics for volume nine-the one Joel had given her.

"Afternoon patrol. We have the morning and the evening free."

"So…we can practice guitar in the morning and evening, right?" Joel chuckled.

"Yea. Hey, don't sleep too late, okay? I'm going back to my room." Joel informed her. "Anyway, the guitar's as good as ever." He leaned the guitar against the wall beside Ellie. Ellie nodded.

"Thanks." She said.

"Hmph." Ellie rolled her eyes at his response. He still didn't know how to accept gratitude easily.

"Go to your room and tinker with your screws and stuff now," Ellie said, albeit impatiently, as she shooed Joel off with her hand. "I wanna read some comics before I go to sleep." Joel nodded and walked towards the door.

"G'night and sweet dreams, baby girl." He whispered as he opened the door and closed it behind him. Ellie pretended not to hear, but they both knew she had heard it.

Both of them couldn't help but plaster a delighted, peaceful and content smile on their faces as they carried on with what they were doing.


End file.
